Leviathan: Rising Tide
by Thervan
Summary: Taking place about two or three years before the start of RWBY, this is telling the story of how Team LVTN came to be, and what they were doing before the lovable team everyone knows and loves showed up, they will deal with the usual things teens who have to save the day deal with, criminals, love, school, and of course the Grimm.
1. Chapter 1

_**Vanir Argent**_

I opened my eyes when the Bullhead hit some turbulence, trying not to vomit from being tossed around and not being able to stabilize myself. "Look at that, the big bad wolf can't keep his lunch down." One of the guards said while motioning at me with his gun.

"Just wait you fucking idiot, once these cuffs are off i'll-" I was cut off mid-sentence by Niren kicking me in the leg, the lizard faunus was looking at me quietly, his eyes narrowed, he knew that they were just goading me into a fight so they could beat me into a pulp. "That's what i thought, without that oversized knife of yours you can't do anything." The guard said, i took a moment to examine him and noticed that he was just a private.

"What would your sergeant say if he knew you were provoking a prisoner with a very long and bloody history of violence into a fight that would vent the entire ship?" I asked him with a grin on my face while his eyes went wide in shock at my knowledge of security measures, it was nothing new to me though, the Knights used the same trick on their transport ships.

"Can't wait to get rid of you two at Beacon." The guard said while looking away from the two of us while his comrades failed to keep themselves from chuckling at his now red face, clearly he wasn't used to being showed up by criminals, or faunus. "You don't enjoy our company? A shame." Niren said after opening one of his teal eyes and staring at the guard, i had managed to make out his rank, a simple Private. The private now aimed his gun at niren and said "Just be quiet will you?" Niren simply went back to his meditation, while i once again closed my eyes and began to count, it was the only thing keeping me from losing my mind at this point.

After a while i began to think about the events that led the two of us to this point.

 **Two Weeks Earlier**

" _Vanir, it's the building on the left._ " Nirens voice crackled over the small communication device in my right ear, which was set to the lowest volume possible, my hearing was to good for it to be any higher without causing damage. " _I see them._ " I replied after standing up and unsheathing _Gram_ , despite the rain and darkness of night, the both of us could see the thugs entering the building. " _Move in, i'll cover you._ " Niren said, i noted the gleam of Gungnir's barrel from the next building, it was in an elevated position so he could take out anyone trying to get me from behind.

"I'm sick of this rain anyway, it's drenching my duster." I said while jumping off the roof i had been standing on. i landed in a large puddle, drenching my boots and jeans, at this point the only things that weren't drenched was my shirt underneath all the armor i was wearing, i sneezed once. "I hate the goddamn rain." i said only to hear Niren chuckle over our comms. " _Be glad you don't have to worry about lying on your stomach for hours on end._ " I moved to a building on the corner of the street the target was on, i took a moment to look around it," _No guards Niren, keep an eye out._ " I said before moving down the street, keeping _Gram_ elevated so that it didn't make any noise other than a sharp whistle. " _Right, keeping an eye out for contacts._ " Niren said before i reached the large double doors.

I took a moment by the doors to try and listen, i wanted to know if there were any guards by it, not that it mattered since in a few moments the walls would be drenched in blood. "Hey, you hear what happened to Aaron's group?" Someone's voice said near the door. "Yeah, completely wiped out, none of them were put in jail." Another voice said. This Aaron must have been the leader of the gang that Vanir and Niren had dealt with the night before. "You think whoever did it might come here next?" The first voice asked his companion. "They might, i mean the boss called everyone in, and these regular patrols?" The other voice said.

" _Vanir, you're clear go in and start clearing the building._ " Niren's voice crackled over my communication device. " _Roger, keep Nexus off the streets as well, just in case we somehow get captured._ " I replied to him, after a moment of looking in his direction i saw the faint green light signaling that he would do it. I stood up and held _Gram_ in front of me, i stepped in front of the door and cut through it in a single downward slash, the blade whistled through the air and a thin line appeared across the door, i kicked it in and stepped into the warehouse, the two guards only stared in shock with their guns pointed at me, "Howdy." I said before rushing them and cutting down the closer one, his blood sprayed across my face, it was warm and made my blood boil.

"W...wait! Please don't kill me!" The second guard begged. I only smiled maliciously and decapitated him, Three other thugs had been drawn over by the noise and had me surrounded, they all dropped dead before a word could be spoken, bullet holes still steaming from the three shots Niren had fired, the rain and his silencer had drowned out the noise of _Gungnir's_ high powered rifle. " _Got your back brother._ " Niren said. I moved further into the building the next group of hostiles i engaged rushed at me from down the hall, Two of them had swords while the other began to fire off burst from their rifles, i impaled the first swordsman and tossed him into the second one, buying myself some time to move forward. "Kill him already!" One of the gunners shouted, by this time the second swordsman had managed to stand and was coming at me, his first attack was his last after i used _Grams_ wide blade to block him and then cut him from shoulder to groin. "Oh my god." One of the gunners said before i sprinted the length of the hall and cut them down.

I soon found myself on the warehouse floor, several more thugs had managed to surround me. "Persistent bastards aren't you?" I said, my copper eyes gleamed with the thought of killing them all. "I think that you overestimate yourself, boy." A man said from one of the catwalk's i couldn't see him with the floodlights, but i knew who he was, Koro Yukki a member of the White Fang who was in league with the Knights. "wait…. you're a member of the Knights! Look tell your boss i will get him the money, i just need more time!" Koro said when he finally noticed the armor underneath my duster, it was standard issue for the Argent Knights, i did not have a chance to make a new set yet and had been using the very durable one from back then.

"I'm not here on business for the Knights, i'm here to bring a small amount of justice to this world for my sins…. and your's." I replied to him, before anyone could react or say anything, two thugs went down with holes in their throats and the power box on the far wall had been hit, allowing me to use the shadows to dispatch the last thugs around me, in the dark i could find my target and cut him down with ease, Gram whistled and hummed as it carved a bloody path through my foes, Koro was still standing on his catwalk, my night vision allowed me to see him, before i could find a way up however he clutched at his chest and fell from the catwalk, landing in a heap at my feet in that bloodsoaked room.

From there things became a blur, Niren yelled something about getting out of there and then i was surrounded by more armed men, these ones however fired multiple tasers at me until i was lying on the ground, twitching from the amount of electricity they had been forced to pump into me, when i had come to next i was in a cell with Niren, gram was gone and so was my armor, Niren was meditating and i was on a very uncomfortable bed. "Urgh, Niren… what the fuck happened?" I asked the Faunus sitting on the floor, he was silent for a moment before saying "Somehow the police found us, when they captured you i surrendered peacefully." I remembered the sensation of all that electricity and shuddered "On a brighter note, your eyes are no longer copper, looks like your Semblance has stopped for a while." Niren continued, he stood and stretched, both of us were still wearing the clothes we hand under our armor, my duster and boots were lying next to the bed, and nirens' cloak was sitting near the other bed.

"How long have we been here?" I asked him while stretching. "About twelve hours, they have kept us away from the other prisoners and i overheard them talking about interrogating us." Niren said while moving over to his bed and lying down. I walked over to the sink and splashed some water on my face, it was covered in crusted blood. "They didn't even wash the blood off my face." I said with disgust. Niren only yawned and said "Sorry, i should have handled that, perhaps you should meditate, it may calm you down." I only tossed my boots at him.

 **Two days later**

The first time that we had been interrogated they went after Niren, though they soon discovered he would say nothing and moved on to me, hoping to find out who we were and how we managed to kill all those people. "Tell me what i need to know dammit!" The investigator shouted at me, he had decided to get in my face, rather than be polite. "Like i said, the two of us heard about a possible drug ring or distribution group and decided to put a stop to it." I would not mention Nexus to them. The investigator threw his hands in the air and started to pace back and forth across the room, i tried to move my hands in an attempt to make them more comfortable in the handcuffs. "You know what? No one would give a damn if i put a bullet in your head here and now faunus." The investigator said while pulling out his sidearm, he crossed the room and forced the barrel into my mouth. "Now…. tell me what i need to know and i won't kill you."

"You know, what?" I said after he removed the gun "Putting a fucking gun in someone's mouth doesn't always make them talk." Before anyone in the room could react, i broke the chain on the cuff and rushed the investigator and put him in a choke hold. "Either of you two try anything and i will snap his neck and rip your's out!" I said to the two officers who had pulled out their sidearms and aimed them at me. Before anything else happened a voice crackled over the intercom from the opposite side of the two way mirror. " _Please… that's quite enough._ " A moment later the door to the room opened and a man at about the same height as me with gray hair walked in, he was carrying a mug with some sort of liquid in it. "Let the man go." The man said, strangely enough i felt compelled to do as he said, i let the investigator drop to the floor and the old man motioned to the guards in a way that said Leave.

As i took a seat at the other end of the table the old man simply smiled, if it was meant to calm me down, it worked very well. "Now, why don't you tell me what happened that night at the warehouse?" He asked me. "It would be easier to tell you if i knew your name." i replied The man raised an eyebrow and took a sip of his drink. "Very well, you may call me Ozpin." Now i raised an eyebrow, the Knights had Ozpin listed as a K.O.S. "My name is Vanir Argent." I said to him "You may want to get comfortable, this story will take a while to tell."

After a few hours i finally finished my story, i even told Ozpin about Nexus and were he could be found. "Would you and niren like to leave this jail and do something better with your lives?" Ozpin asked me, i took a moment to think about his offer, finally i nodded. "On one condition though, Nexus needs to be allowed entry to your school as well." Ozpin nodded, took a sip from his cup, and stood to leave, i only leaned back in the chair and heaved a sigh of relief.

 **Present Day**

I opened my eyes when i felt the airship lurch to a stop, Niren did the same thing, we stood up when the guards stood, and walked down the ramp after it opened, this particular type of Bullhead was meant for military use, but had been given to the Vale Police in the event of a high value prisoner being transported. "Mind getting these off?" I asked the Private who had been a dick for the entire ride to Beacon, he only scowled as he undid Nirens cuffs first, then mine.

"Thanks." I said before headbutting him, "That, was for the insults." I said after bending over to look him in the eye. "Please Mr. Argent, refrain from doing that on my campus." Ozpin said, he was being tailed by a stern looking woman with glasses and two large duffle bags, both belonged to Niren and I. "Very sorry for my brothers actions sir." Niren said while rubbing his wrists and moving to get his bag, it made a fair amount of noise, and when Niren opened it he found his armor and magazines for _Gungnir_ , when i opened mine i noticed that everything was how i left it, even my Scroll, i was wondering were _Gram_ was when the stern woman said "Your weapons will be returned to you tomorrow, when you go through the initiation. "Fine by me." Niren said, i only nodded.

"Please head to the Auditorium, there will be a speech in one hour." The woman said to the two of us, we didn't bother with getting our armor on, it would take too long, we only nodded and began to walk in the direction. "You know, i'm surprised they have not put any form of tracking device on us yet." I said to Niren as we walked down the airship landing platform. "Most likely they hid one on our clothes or in our Scrolls." He said while looking around, the school certainly had a nice view and air about it. "Shall we go and see what this speech is about the brother?" I asked him, trying to sound excited for being stuck in one area for the next four years of my life, the Knights had always been on the move, so the idea of being grounded was….strange to me. "I think we shall." Niren said as we walked in the general direction the other students were moving in.

 **Note: Like i said, this is my first time trying a First person perspective, so it's a little... odd, anyway i hope you enjoy this story, it gives me something to do other than think about the terror that is Finals at school.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Niren Argent**_

I looked around the auditorium, the sheer amount of people talking was causing Vanir some discomfort, the only downside of his hearing was that it could actually cause him harm. "You feeling alright?" I asked him while digging around in my bag for some ear plugs for him. "Not really." He said as the wolf ears on the side of his head twitched in agitation.

"Hey at least it's not a gun being fired next to you." I said as i pulled out the plugs and handed them to him. "Thanks." He said as he put them in, it was comical to watch him, the plugs had been designed specifically for his ears, and looked rather odd. "Much better." Vanir said with a sigh of relief. Before i could say anything else my attention, as well as everyone else was drawn to the stage were Ozpin was standing, he had tapped the microphone set up for him.

"Welcome, to Beacon academy, you have to here for many reasons, some of you to become better than you were before, others to find purpose and put an abundance of energy to work. Though some of you may be here for other more…. personal reasons. Whatever reason you came to this school for, what matters is that you have managed to make it this far and i hope that you continue to walk the path you are treading, that is all." Ozpin finished his speech and i could not help but feel that the comment about personal reason was directed towards Vanir and I.

Now the stern woman replaced Ozpin as he backed down. "You will all sleep in the barn tonight, and tomorrow you will take your initiation, have a good evening." She said before leaving with Ozpin. "So…. let's find some food eh?" Vanir suggested after punching me lightly in the shoulder. "Why not." I said as my stomach grumbled, the food in that prison was horrible and neither of us had eaten that entire day.

The two of us left the hall with our things and wandered around, looking at the campus that would be our home for the next four years, it was strangely pleasant and calm, unlike the constantly moving stealth ships that the Knights called home. "Cafeterias that way." Vanir said after smelling the air and looking over to his left at a brightly lit building. He began to move towards it and i followed. "That smells amazing." I said, whatever they had in there was heavily seasoned and reminded me of the days before the Knights.

"So… Ozpin seemed like he was thinking of something else, that speech of his seemed pretty half assed." Vanir said to me while pointing his fork at my chest. "I agree, but for now let's worry about tomorrow, what do you think they mean by Initiation?" I said in between bites of bread. Vanir took a moment to think and eat another bite of meat. "Probably some sort of trial, more than likely fighting Grimm or something to prove our worth, after all we passed their entrance exam with flying colors." Vanir said after swallowing.

I took a moment to think and chew more food before saying. "That does seems the most likely scenario, but i'm still wondering where Nexus is, Ozpin said they had found him and brought him here." I was worried about Nexus, but not because he was my friend. "Yeah i didn't see him in the auditorium." Vanir said after sitting up, his plate was cleared of food at this point. I took another bite of my food, it was possible that Ozpin had decided to keep the three of us apart for the time being, more than likely we would see Nexus tomorrow.

"Let's go get some sleep, i'm fucking tired." Vanir said to me while he was stretching one of his arms and yawning. I smiled slightly and nodded my head. "Sure. Why not?"

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

The Barn was as cozy as a place could get when you stuffed at least a hundred teens into a small space with each other. "Well, at least they kept our things as they were." Niren said to me while he set up the bedroll he had in his bag. "True, and they told us were _Gram_ and _Gungnir_ are." I replied while lying on my own bedroll, i was wearing a pair of flannel pants and a T-Shirt. Niren chuckled and said "That's all you care about isn't it?"

"Of course it is." I replied with a scowl. Gram was one my few possessions. "You know that Ozpin is expecting us to show him what we're made of tomorrow right?" Niren said to me while he looked up at the ceiling. "Of course he is, we have to be Huntsmen now, not Knights." I said quietly, the lights were slowly fading in the barn, and neither of us knew where Nexus was at. "Get some sleep brother, it's going to be a long day tomorrow." Niren said before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. It took me at least an hour longer to fall asleep, my mind was racing. " _What if they find us here?_ " Was the most prominent one.

 **The Next Morning**

I never was much of a morning person, being kidnapped at the age of ten and being forced to get up every day at four in the morning did that to a person, in fact the only reason that i got up as early as i did was so that i could get some fresh coffee to wake me up. The Cafeteria was very empty at this hour, it was only about five or six and the only people who were here were a few other students, and the staff, a portly man who smelled like some sort of boiled vegetable was in front of me, talking to another more lean man with green hair that went out in all directions.

"Give me a bit of everything please." I said to the woman behind the counter with a smile, she did not look surprised in the least at my request. "So… this is your first year isn't it?" She asked me while piling food onto my tray. "Yes, how'd you guess?" I responded. "You first years always want a large meal before they send you into the forest." She said while handing me the tray that was piled with bacon, eggs, pancakes, and toast. I thanked her and made my way over to a coffee machine to get some, After that i went to the nearest table and took a seat, the food tasted like heaven. "Mornin!" A girl said rather loudly to me.

When i looked up from my plate with a piece of bacon sticking out of my mouth the girl only laughed at me. "So, how is it?" She asked me while pointing at the piece of meat in my mouth. "Yes, it was." I said after swallowing. "I saw you and your friend the other day and wanted to say hello, since you both looked like you could use a new friend." She said to me, it was pretty rude that she hadn't even told me who the hell she was. "Mind telling me your name?" I said to her while she sat on the edge of the table. "Oh right, my name. Its Talia Halcyon." She said while smiling, her brown hair was covering one side of her face, i took a moment to examine her clothes, usually that helped me figure out where someone came from, but the blue jeans and white Tee didn't scream out any particular region of Remnant. "My names Vanir Argent." I said after drinking from my mug of coffee.

Talia had left for a moment to get her own food after her stomach had growled, in the meantime Niren had walked in and sat down next to me, he was already in his leather jerkin and leggings, he preferred to wear leather gloves and boots covered in square segmented steel plates. Of course i was wearing my duster and armor, the tank top and jeans underneath. "What do they have?" Niren asked me while rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Go see for yourself you lazy fucker." I said to him after finishing my drink. "Bastard." Niren mumbled while walking towards the counter, by this time more students were pouring into the Cafeteria, and Talia had returned to the table. "Who was that grumpy guy?" She asked while jerking a finger at Niren. "That… was my brother Niren." I replied slowly.

"He seems like fun." Talia said while tossing and apple from her tray back and forth in her hands. "He can be a grouch at times, but he always has my back." I replied to her. At this point Niren set his tray of food down on the table, his meal was a simple one of toast and eggs. "We should hurry and finish here so we can get ready for the initiation." He said to the two of us while eating one piece of toast. Talia stood up and stretched. "Well Vanir, see ya later." She said to me while walking off.

"Shall we get ready for this test of their then Vanir?" Niren asked me when he finished his food. "I thought you would never ask." I said while standing up, most of the others had cleared out by now and aside from us there was only at least two groups of people left. "Calm down Vanir, let's go get our stuff." Niren said after setting his tray down somewhere, he punched me in the shoulder with was somewhat comical considering that i'm taller than him standing at about Six feet, Three inches.

We finally found our gear stashed in some lockers that Goodwitch had neglected to give us the codes to, which led to me having to rip the doors off. "We are going to get killed for that." Niren said to me while going over _Gungnir_. "Eh, we can afford the price, you hacked the Knight's multiple bank accounts." I told him after making sure that _Grams_ edge was still razor sharp and sheathing it. "Dammit, we can't go throwing that around." Niren said with an annoyed tone. I chuckled and stood up from the bench i was sitting on. "Come on Brother, time to go kill." I said after patting him on the shoulder and walking towards the exit, Niren was close behind me.

The spot we had been told to meet at was a cliff overlooking the forest, Goodwitch had directed us to stand on the metal pads and Niren shivered slightly before saying "I hate when i have to do this." I chuckled and said. "Look on the bright side Brother, you have a powerful sniper that can slow your descent, i on the other hand only have my trusty blade." This seemed to make my brother more at ease. "Please be quiet while Headmaster Ozpin speaks." Goodwitch said to the two of us, i just now noticed that the others had arrived. Now Ozpin began to speak. "In order to enter Beacon, you must first prove that you have what it takes to face the Grimm and live, to help with that you will all enter the forest and head to the ruins by the river to retrieve Relics that have been left there, in order to help with the formation of teams the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years." I was impressed with how much Ozpin could say before needing to stop and take a breath, before my thoughts could go off in a random direction he began to speak again.

"After you have found the Relics, you will return here, as for entrance to the forest you will have to devise your own landing strategy." Everyone looked down at their plate and only a few Niren and I included actually knew what the bastard was about to do. "I hate this part." Niren said just before his plate launched him into the air, the two of us were at the end of the line, and were the first two to be launched. " _It's going to be a long day._ " I thought to myself as i was sent flying towards a sea of green.

 **Im going to be honest, i thought i had two chapters for the story out and spent a while trying to type up a third one, so you get this nice chunk of work.**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Niren Argent**_

I was in the air far longer than should have been possible, when i began my descent into the forest i started firing rounds out of _Gungnir_ so i would slow down enough to use it's blade to latch onto a tree branch and land that way, it was going to hurt like hell but i had to do something.

I saw my chance when i broke through the canopy and almost hit a large branch, i quickly held Gungnir up so its axe head could grab a hold of the branch and allow me to use up the rest of the inertia from the fall by swinging in a circle, it was enough to make me vomit after i finally stopped. "Disgusting." I said to myself when i finally got free of the branch. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand while leaning on _Gungnir_ with my other. "Now… where the bloody hell is that river?" I asked myself as i looked around, if i remembered rightly there were several small streams, and Vanir was heading towards one of them while using _Gram_ as an airbrake, more than likely his landing would kick a fair amount of water and dust, possibly some Grimm as well.

I began to head East, which was the general direction Vanir went, my only hope to be on his team was to find him before anyone else did, it was also my only chance to make sure he didn't murder anyone. Before i could go any further i heard the noise of combat, it was very close to me so i figured that i should go and help if i can.

When i was closer to the fight all i could hear was the sounds of a woman yelling and Grimm screeching in pain, i found a clearing and took cover in the brush, hoping that i wasn't seen or smelled by anything while i loaded a fresh clip into _Gungnir_ , only five rounds, but they were enough to pierce through some very thick armor, those bone plates wouldn't stand a chance. "Come on you bastards, give me a fight!" Shouted the girl Vanir had been talking to earlier, her white shirt was stained with the blood of some Grimm and she sported an elegant battle axe that seemed to glow a light blue color. I took aim for the nearest Beowolf that was trying to circle around her and pulled the trigger the moment my sights leveled out on its head.

 _ **Talia Halcyon**_

My fall was finally stopped when i was getting WAY too close to the ground and used my semblance to create a sort of curved ramp that i could slide on for a safer stop, when i reached the end of it i had my axe _Oblivion_ out and was ready for any Grimm stupid enough to get between me and that temple. "Now… where the fuck is it?" I asked myself as i looked around, Vanir seemed like the type to figure that kind of stuff out, so i decided to go in the direction i saw him falling in with that greatsword out.

I was only a mile or so from where i landed when i found myself in a clearing, i noted the fact that something was off. "Come out you bastards, i'll let you play with _Oblivion_ for a while!" I shouted, a moment later a very big pack of Beowolves rushed out of the brush, i smiled as _Oblivion_ began to glow a light blue and the first Grimm was cut clean in half from head to groin by my first downward slash, i then ducked as another one swiped at my head and imbedded _Oblivions_ single edge into its back, the Beowolf shuddered and fell to the ground, after i pulled _Oblivion_ from it's back, the other Grimm seemed to get the idea that i wouldn't be easy prey for them.

The fight had reached a sort of standstill, i was standing in a small circle of disappearing Grimm, covered in their blood, which was also disappearing from my clothes, "Well?! You fuckers wanted to fight so come at me!" I yelled, hoping that at least one of the ten remaining Grimm would attack, i almost didn't notice the one behind me until i heard a loud gun fire and the Beowolf's head was gone. Both me and the remaining Grimm were stunned, then the gun fired another four times and four more of them dropped dead without a head. "To be honest, you need to pay more attention to the fight in general lass." A familiar grumpy voice rang out from somewhere to my left.

The rest of the Grimm decided to rush at me when i looked over that way, they were stopped when someone kicked one of them in the face and decapitated another two while in midair with a halberd, when he landed he swung it around in a circle and finished off the remaining Grimm, he ended up crouched in a circle of dead bodies with his halberd in a grip that someone who fights with a staff would have it. "Of course, i shouldn't distract you either." He said while standing up and looking at his handiwork. "I could've handled them." I said to him while walking over to him with a frown on my face. "Your Vanir's brother right?" I asked him while turning him around, if i was going to be stuck with someone for the next four years i could honestly do much worse than a grumpy halberd wielding maniac who killed things like it was second nature.

"Damn, i was hoping to avoid getting stuck with a partner before reaching Vanir, poor sod has probably gotten into a bigger scuffle than this." He said to me while looking at the clearing, which was mostly clear by now. "Then let's go get him." I said while starting to move to the edge of the clearing. "Your heading the wrong way, Vanir fell towards the East." He said while jerking his thumb towards the way behind him, i turned around and grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him East. "What's your name by the way? Vanir told me and i forgot." I asked him while my face was beet red. "My name is Niren." He said while slowly releasing my grip on his arm.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

"Oh… yes." I said as i stared down the group of Grimm that was starting to circle around me and the Girl i was standing back to back with, she only sighed at my obvious joy at the twenty plus Grimm to kill. "Oh come on Lirril, it's just a pack of Grimm, let's go wild!" I shouted before cutting down another pair that decided to try and attack me, i grinned with joy as their blood sprayed across my face, the small stream we were fighting in was black with their blood.

"Can you at least stick close to me?!" Lirril shouted at me as she jumped up in the air and seemed to hover before using the massive Chakram she had to decapitate the Grimm that had attacked her, it was a small Beowolf. "Just loosen up a bit would ya?" I asked her after grabbing a third Grimm by the face and tossing it into the water and stomping on its head with my boot, the resulting gore was enough to give me another burst of stamina, that was one thing no one understood about my semblance, the more blood and gore i see, the longer i can fight.

"Your a fucking masochist, you know that?!" Lirril shouted while sliding underneath two more Grimm and cutting their legs off with her Chakram, which had split into two. "Yeah i know that, thanks Captain Obvious!" I shouted back after impaling an Ursa on Grams massive blade and lifting it into the air and tossing it into the last three near her. "I needed that." I sighed out after sheathing _Gram_ , Lirril was less enthusiastic about the fight and the conditions around our partnership.

 **One Hour Earlier**

I held _Gram_ out in front of me to catch the wind and slow my descent, it wouldn't stop me from hitting the ground hard but it would give me enough time to find some water to land in at least i wouldn't break any bones. After a couple more minutes i noticed that i was getting closer to a stream that looked deep enough to break my fall, i sheathed _Gram_ midair which wasn't an easy feat while going at terminal velocity and dove towards the stream.

My landing was more rough than i thought it would be, first the stream was only about waist deep so i wound up hitting my head a few times, and second i soon found myself surrounded by at least forty Grimm, then again my vision was blurry so it may have been twenty. "Well….. hello." I said to them after i stood up and drew _Gram_ , Grimm seem to have this habit were people falling from the sky confuses them greatly. Two of them finally decided to move in to attack, their reward was _Gram's_ blade sliding in and out of their guts. "Today is going to be a long day." I said to myself again as a warmth spread throughout my limbs and i took up my usual stance with _Gram's_ blade pointed downwards.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

I suppose Ozpin could have picked a worse way for me to enter the forest, my Semblance allowed me to control air currents so i was able to use _Suparna_ and _Chirada_ to hover for a decent amount of time, my only mistake so far was landing in a stream filled with Grimm and a madman who was fighting them by himself. He would have died if i didn't throw _Suparna_ in a Beowolf's back. "Thanks." He said after i retrieved my weapon and stood facing the Grimm on the opposite side of him, i merged the two smaller chakram back into their proper form, _Garuda_ "Looks like i'm stuck with you for the next four years, if we make it out of this alive that is." I said to him while slicing a Beowolf from shoulder to groin.

"We'll make it." He said while cutting an Ursa's head off then stabbing a Beowolf through the stomach. "What's your name?" He asked me while sidestepping another Ursas downward swipe. "Lirril Evergreen!" I shouted while dividing Garuda to cut the throats of two scrawny Beowolves. He laughed for some reason. "My name is Vanir Argent!" He shouted after jumping onto the Ursa's back and stabbing it through the neck.

"These guys just won't stop will they?" I asked him after another group of Grimm arrived "Looks like it." Vanir said to me while stabbing a Beowolf and tossing it over us. "Can your Semblance take out large groups of enemies?" I asked him while ducking underneath another Beowolf and cutting it down it's large back, i was glad that my black clothes didn't show any of their blood, it would have made me sick to my stomach. Though it did mess up the feather design over the duster i wore. "No, it only makes me fight longer." Vanir said while cutting off the arm of a Beowolf then decapitate it after it dropped to a knee.

"Then buy me some time!" I shouted before closing my eyes and slowing my breathing down until all i could hear was my heartbeat, and the faint sound of Vanir moving around to deal with any Grimm the got close to me. When i opened my eyes after what felt like an hour, Vanir was slowly being pushed onto his knees by a large Ursa, my Semblance was ready to be used, and my green aura was flared out. "Uh oh." Vanir said before rolling underneath the Ursa and stabbing in the back and through its stomach and lifting his blade up so he could cut it in half.

"Get behind me!" I shouted as the wind started to pick up to more than a light breeze,

Vanir noticed the strength of the air pick up and quickly waded through the water to stand behind me, he was panting from the exertion of the fight, it wouldn't be much longer until we only had to deal with at least twenty out of sixty Grimm though. When the wind had picked up enough to lift a large boulder, i began to direct it towards the Grimm, which seemed to once again lock up in confusion at what was happening i began to lift them into the air by groups of five or ten and then drop them, their broken bodies killing more Grimm in the process, i could feel Vanir staring at me in awe. "Damn." He said when i stopped and fell backwards, he caught me and asked. "Hey, you alright, we still have to kill at least twenty of them." I shook him off me and said. "Of course i'm alright, i could the same of you though." Vanir only laughed and raised his sword at the Grimm again.

 **Present Time**

"So which way is that temple?" I asked Vanir after we took a moment to catch our breath dry off a little. Vanir stretched his arms and said "Ozpin said it was near a river, so i figured i would follow this stream until i came upon the river itself." I nodded while holding my chin and said. "Makes sense, follow the stream and see if it leads you to the river, but what if it's a tributary of the river?" Vanir finished stretching and said. "Then i would have just gone back the way i came or found a good vantage point." I only shrugged since we had no choice but to see which way the stream led.

"Do you think we might find others out here?" I asked him after we walked into a clearing that was strangely cold. "There were two people here before us, looks like they fought Grimm." Vanir said after rubbing some strange dirt between his fingers. "How can you tell?" I asked him, his response was to point at the remaining ice, and the bullet casings. "They went east afterwards." He said while pointing at a pair of footprints that were barely visible to me. "Wow, should we keep following them then?" I asked him, Vanir nodded and began to follow the trail left by our comrades.

 _ **Niren Argent**_

Talia cut down another Ursa while i sniped the others that were trying to get behind her, this strategy worked well, if she distracted them with a frontal assault, i could take them out with _Gungnir_. "Can we just reach this temple so we can meet up with Vanir again?" She asked me while panting heavily, the constant attacks by the Grimm were beginning to take their toll on her. "If i know my brother, the he is most likely following the stream to try and find the river the temple is at, if not then he may be following us, if you want you can let me handle the Grimm for a while." I said to my new ally, she wasn't as bad as i thought at first, and she knew how to wield that axe of hers.

"Yes please." Talia said while drinking some water from the bottle she had on her belt. As we continued down the stream. i noticed that i heard the sounds of Grimm screaming in the distance, more than likely they were behind us, but a couple of times i could tell that they came from ahead of us. "We need to hurry this up." I said when i noticed how far down the sun had gone. "Why?" Talia asked me. "Ghouls like to appear at night, and it's getting close to that." I said while quickening my own pace, Talia must have noticed my attitude involving Ghouls and moved to keep up with me.

We finally came to a clearing and saw what we had been looking for, the ruins of a temple next to and in the river, to our surprise another group of four students were busy fighting off a small group of Ghouls that had decided to come out early. I was moving to help when i saw a glowing axe blade that belonged to only one person in all of Remnant, Nexus "Talia let's go provide some support!" I shouted while loading a fresh clip into _Gungnir_ and firing as i ran towards the temple, my aim was thrown off by the movement but i was still able to take out at least five Ghouls.

Talia jumped into the fray by cutting one Ghoul in half and imbedding _Oblivions_ blade into another's skull. I killed three more of them through either decapitation or just putting the blade of _Gungnir's_ axe into their torsos. I was about to kill another that was behind me when it was thrown into a wall after a dull _Thunk._ "Been awhile hasn't it eh Niren?" Nexus asked me with a grin.

A moment later Vanir finally arrived with a girl following closely behind him. "About fucking time you bastard." I said to him before giving him a hug, i had been worried that Grimm had actually managed to kill him. "We were following a sniper and ice wielding axe fighter down the river when a good sized group of Ghouls attacked us." Vanir said with a sly grin on his face.

Nexus walked up to Vanir and put him a choke hold for a few second while rubbing his head with a fist. "You two should have told me that you were here." He said with a grin. "Can we focus on the fact that it's night and we most likely have a whole horde of Ghouls out there?" A girl with a twinblade said. Nexus straightened a little when he heard her speak. "Oh yeah there is that problem." He said, the other two students, both males one with two Sabers and the other with a large scythe walked over the group then. "Glad you brought those dust crystals Rennic." Nexus said to the one with the sabers who simply nodded.

"What do you mean by Dust crystals?" I asked Nexus who turned to face me and said. "Rennic brought some Dust crystals meant to provide a good amount of light, good for humans to use to help fight in the dark. "Let's get ready for those Ghouls." Vanir said after taking a few crystals and setting them up in parts of the ruin that would allow them to provide a good amount of light. "What about the relics?" Talia asked him. "Oh yeah the last ones are on that pedestal over there, The four of us walked over to retrieve the only four relics, which were chess pieces left. All of them were Black Knights. "Ironic." Vanir said before stashing it in the large bag on his belt.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

Ghouls were my least favorite type of Grimm, they looked like humans that were starved, aside from the black skin customary to Grimm and the bone plates on their faces and one of their arms that formed a crude and evil looking blade, the body of them was fragile and they died quickly, but the sheer numbers in which they came was what made them hard to beat. To top it all off, there was always at least one Ogre with them, and they were covered head to toe in armor that even Niren had trouble getting past.

"Vanir hurry up and block that entryway!" Niren shouted at me to break my chain of thought, i pushed down the last column at the entrance so that Niren would be able to kill anything that tried to enter there, the others were busy do the same, Nexus on the other hand was out in the area around the ruin setting up a minefield using Nexus' supply of dust mines, that would help to thin out their numbers a little. "The fact that Ozpin has yet to contact us with a warning or anything mean he either thinks we're dead, or wants to test us." I said to my brother after i returned to his side. "Those are the most likely possibilities is this case." He said before a loud wail echoed from the surrounding woods, causing the two of us to cring.

"Shit." I said to my brother after it subsided. "Great an Archon." Niren said after a moment, this was going to be a long night.

 **And now i have introduced my own Grimm, the Ghoul, the Ogre, and the Archon, hope you enjoy this chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Continued from last chapter**_

After the screaming from the Archon faded Lirril and Talia walked up to me and Niren. "What the hell was that?" Talia asked us. My ears were still ringing from the high pitched wail so Niren answered for me.

"That… was an Archon, at least one tends to travel in the Hordes that Ghouls and Ogre tends to make up, from what survivors of attacks by them have compiled, they appear to be a mix of Ghouls and Ogres, they stand a good two feet taller than the Ghouls, but are more armored and muscular, like an Ogre." Niren took a moment to breath before continuing. " To top it all off, they are just as much if not more intelligent than a human." Tali and Lirril looked at my brother in shock.

"Something like that actually exists?" Talia asked, her eyes wide. Niren nodded at her and i only nodded, the last time i encountered one i nearly died, the only reason i was still alive was because of my mentor Lucas. "Those mines won't be enough to even the odd now." Nexus said when he ran up to us with Rennic. "Agreed, with an Archon leading them, they won't try and swarm over us like normal." Niren said with a hand on his chin, his whole strategy had to be reformed to account for the Archon.

"Let me deal with the Archon." I said after a while, the others head snapped up after i spoke. "Vanir, last time either of us met an Archon, Lucas was the one who killed it while he sat against a wall with a dozen wounds." Niren said to me dryly. I scowled and said. "That was then, this is now if anything i have a better chance now than i did back then." Niren threw his hands up in the air and said "Fine, but if i see an opening to put a round through its skull, i'm taking it." I nodded.

"Right so here's the new plan for dealing with the Horde of Grimm about to try and kill us." Niren said after everyone finished their tasks and gathered around us. "We stay in this part of the ruins, do not leave it until the Horde has left, the minefield will thin out the Ghouls and do some damage to the Ogre's, but that Archon won't fall for it." He took a moment to let what he said sink in. "No doubt the staff of the school knows they can't land a Bullhead here, so until we either die or send them packing we will receive little to no help at all."

I looked at the other five standing around us, each one had their weapons out, Rennic's partner was looking like he was going to vomit. "Niren, let's keep this short eh?" I whispered to my brother, who had paused once again to give everyone a moment to process what he said. "Right, when the Archon shows up, and trust me it will, Vanir will fight it if any of you see a chance to attack it do not hesitate." Niren said ending his speech.

"If anyone needs a short version of that i can give it to you." Nexus said while putting a large Dust cylinder in Kyofu. "Stay put, slaughter any Ghoul dumb enough to enter, and attack the Archon only if you get the chance to do so." He explained with a smile, he was trying to keep everyone from panicking.

The sun was getting closer to the horizon and the natural light would soon fade, this would not be a problem for any Faunus, but the humans would need to rely on the lights we set up, at least until an Ogre broke one of the walls. I noticed Lirril walk up behind me.

"So. How many of these Archon's have you killed?" She asked me after putting a hand on one hip. I chuckled before saying "None." She stood there, shocked at the fact that i volunteered to kill the damn thing. "Then how will you kill it if you haven't killed one before?!" She yelled at me. I thought for a moment before saying. "Well first, Archons are rare enough to the point that next to nothing is known about them, and i watched the person who taught me to fight kill one, so i know were to attack it at, the only problem is that unlike normal Grimm, they will adapt."

Lirril suddenly slapped me across the face, hard. "You idiot!" She yelled at me I only smiled as i turned to leave. "What the hell are you laughing at?" She asked after seeing my response. "I guess you really do care." I said as i walked back towards the other. " _That's a pleasant moon._ " I thought to myself as i forced my Semblance to activate.

When i returned to the area everyone else was at, some of the others were thrown off by the fact that my eyes were now copper, and not blue. Nexus only looked at me grimly, then nodded with his arms crossed over his chest. "Everyone get ready, they will move on us soon." Niren said in a matter of fact tone, as if to confirm what he said yet another shriek pierced the silence of the night, soon a chorus of growls roars and less shrill shrieks joined it.

"Well… aren't they just eager?" I said after they stopped, there was a small trickle of blood coming out of one of my ears, i decided now was not the time to worry about a broken eardrum that my Aura would repair anyways. "Form a circle, do not let them flank us!" Niren said with a wave of his hand as he stood to face one of the entrances, everyone followed my brother example until the eight of us formed a small circle on a slightly raised area in the center of the ruins.

 _ **Talia Halcyon**_

My first two thoughts at seeing the Ghouls up close were " _Damn aren't you ugly?_ " and then " _Oh shit they have swords for arms._ " The only good part about Ghouls was that they were weak and general died in one hit, the bad part was that there were so _many._

"Talia look out!" Niren shouted at me as he quickly turned and shot a Ghoul that was trying to get past me while i was busy dealing with two more in front of me, after he turned back around and swung his weapon is a large arc in order to kill a large group of Ghouls that was trying to overwhelm him. I turned my attention back to the Ghouls in front of me and buried Oblivion in the shoulder of one. The ground shook as more of the Dust mines went off and for a few seconds there were less Ghouls pouring in.

As the battle progressed i began to notice that the battle followed a certain flow, for a while the Ghouls poured in, then for a few moment they would stop. My thoughts were broken when Niren finally said something other than calling out to someone who needed some help to duck.

"Break and engage as you please!" He shouted over the noise while cutting down a group of Ghouls with a flurry of swings. I held my ground for a few more moments before i decided to move over towards Niren. My path was blocked by a fair number of Ghouls. I soon found myself pressed up against a wall trying to fend them off, apparently they could use those blade arms of theirs because they kept me from doing much harm to them by blocking my strikes and swinging at me a couple of times, i thought it was all over when suddenly multiple Ghouls were sent flying from the other side of them room.

When i finally caught a glimpse of who was responsible i saw Niren, Vanir, and Nexus all standing in a staggered line using their weapons to send large numbers of Ghouls to their deaths. "Well damn." The guy with the two sabers said to me after he killed three more Ghouls. "They work together very well." His friend with the scythe said after using it to clear away another portion of the room.

The three of us looked on as the Ghouls stopped attacking us for a while and moved to engage the much larger threat posed by the three fighters standing on the pile of corpses, none of them ever landed a blow on their targets, if Niren didn't gun them down, then either Vanir or Nexus would use the reach of their weapons to kill them.

"Hey, there are less of them now." one of the others said, i looked around the room and saw that the number of Ghouls had decreased dramatically, Lirril and the girl with the Twinblade were still taking out some stragglers but otherwise the Ghouls weren't sending in anymore.

"Get away from the walls!" Nexus yelled before I felt the ground shaking and heard a beast roaring. "Oh shit." I said before grabbing the two standing next to me and getting them away from that wall. A large fist covered in white bone plates and red markings broke through a moment later and when it finally released itself a large face with one red eye peered in at us.

 _ **Nexus**_

When the first Ogre broke through the wall debris and dust filled the room, the others could only see its silhouette, but because of the fact that i'm not entirely human i was able to see the vast amount of heat it produced, and felt terror at the creature's appearance. It was at least seventeen feet tall and covered in thick bone plates from head to toe, with only a few gaps so it could move, its head was what scared me the most i think, it was larger in the back than at the front due to the multiple curving horns, and i could just barely make out its mouth which was filled with rows of sharp teeth.

"Nexus, kill it." Niren said to me while loading a fresh clip of armor piercing rounds into _Gungnir_ and aiming it at the Ogres eye. I loaded a fresh canister of Dust into _Kyofu_ and looked over at Vanir who returned the unspoken message with a nod, i only grinned as the both of us rushed the massive creature and a glowing white blade appeared from the nozzles on the end of _Kyofu_.

Vanir quickly went for one of the small gaps in the Ogre's armor near its achilles tendon, hoping to stop it from moving, i on the other hand moved to take and arm off or keep it still for Niren, who was firing rounds at one spot on its armored head, the center of the bone plate. I noticed that the others were fighting more Ghouls, that Archon had begun to send them in again when the walking battering ram arrived.

"Nexus! Help me out with its tendon!" Vanir shouted after he managed to chip away a small chunk of armor, i rolled away from the Ogre's clumsy attempt at grabbing me and ran over to Vanir and hit the area on the back of the leg he pointed at with Kyofu, the ice that sprouted was cold enough to let him cut through reinforced steel. Vanir only nodded as he hit the frozen area while Niren kept its attention on him, when the bone plates shattered i swung Kyofu at the black flesh beneath and noted how cleanly the white blade took the beasts entire foot off.

The two of us moved away from the Ogre as it fell and Vanir moved to jump on its torso and stab it's head in the cracked area from Nirens bombardment, Gram plunged through the outer plate and the flesh muscle and bone beneath and after a few spasms the Ogre finally stopped breath and began to turn into that strange black smoke almost immediately.

"Second one is coming soon." Vanir said after pulling Gram out of the Ogre and jumping off to lean on me for a bit, once again the Archon screeched and my vision was clouded by static. "I get the feeling that something really bad is about to happen." Rennic said after running another Ghoul through. "About goddamn time." Vanir said with a smile playing across his face.

"Get ready and form up everyone!" Niren yelled as everyone began to form up on him, he stood where he stood when the fight began and loaded another fresh clip into Gungnir. "What exactly is coming?" Mithril asked him. " _Archon_ " a beastial voice growled. Niren suddenly lowered Gungnir with a look of shock and awe on his face, Vanir on the other hand only held Gram tighter and moved to stand in front of his brother. I was confused at what was happening until i saw the Archon for the first time, it looked like a mix between the Ogre and Ghoul's It stood around nine feet tall, was muscular like an Ogre, but slim and very human looking like a Ghoul, the bone plates covered its body like gauntlets, sabatons, and a chest piece would, and it's face mask covered every part of its face but the mouth, with revealed a row of sharp teeth on a human like face. the rest of it's mask turned into two horns that went down then forward to end near it's mouth.

"You want to fight that thing?" I asked Vanir who nodded. The Archon seemed to noticed Vanirs challenge as he walked forward with Gram held out to the side, i then noticed that on it's back in what must have been a slot of some kind the Archon drew a very crude looking blade made out of the same material as it's bone plates. "What the hell?" Rennic asked anyone who would answer him when he saw it do that.

 **Sorry for the short chapter everyone. But this next one is going to be pretty long and will wrap up the initiation, and yes i know that Ozpin would have most likely sent staff to help the students if he knew there was something like that so close to his school, but everything that seems to be missing will be handled next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Vanir Argent**_

If there was ever a time to call myself stupid, now would be that time. Most people would run away from the Grimm that stands at nine feet tall. Most people would run from the Grimm that drew a fucking greatsword from some type of sheath on it's i wanted to run from the Grimm that did all of that plus say "Archon." Before walking into the ruins were so many of it's personal army perished, but i didn't have a choice but to fight it.

"I'm going to regret this later…." I said to myself as i moved towards the Archon with _Gram_ held out at my side. The Archon's eyes glared at my blade with what looked like….. Interest?

" _Why is it interested in Gram?_ " I thought to myself as i stopped only a few feet away from the Archon, i held _Gram_ up in a defensive posture, i had no clue what the Archon would do, the last one i encountered didn't have an actual blade to hold, it's entire left arm was a blade.

The Archon growled and began to walk around in a circle, i began to do the same. " _It knows how to fight like a human?_ " I thought after it stopped moving and rushed forward and attacked me with a downward swing, i was barely able to block it's strike before it followed up with a thrust to the left.

I finally found a chance to attack the Archon when i jumped out of the way of an attack and it's blade became caught in one of the few walls still standing. I moved in to slash at the back of one of it's knees, i smiled as some of it's black blood sprayed from the small wound and hit my face, it was warm and disappeared quickly.

The Archon left me little room to retreat before it hit me with it's arm and sent me flying across the room and into a wall. "Fuck!" I thought when it was on me the moment i was able to stand up, the flurry of swings made me feel like i was training with Lucas but he was actively trying to run me through.

As the fight went on my senses began to narrow down to the Archon, i was vaguely aware of the others fighting off a new surge of Ghouls and Ogres, apparently it had at least four in its little army. "Can't keep this up much longer." I thought to myself again as i blocked another set of swings that seemed to come from all directions.

The Archon kept itself on top of me as i attempted to put some distance between me and it, i managed to get past it's defense after a short exchange of blows and smiled with satisfaction as Gram slid into its torso directly underneath its crude chest plate, i pulled _Gram_ up and out and jumped back as a fountain of blood sprayed out from the vertical wound.

The Archon howled in rage at sprang at me with surprising speed before i could even raise _Gram_ it had hit me with an uppercut. "Motherfucker!" I said to myself as i wiped blood out of my eyes, the wound they were coming from wasn't closing and it was getting harder to mitigate the damage from the Archons attacks, my Aura was starting to fail. "Shit." Was all i could say before a large black hand grabbed me by the face and lifting me into the air.

The Archon wrapped a hand around my right arm and squeezed it, the bones inside cracking and popping and all i could do was scream in pain while the Archon let out that growling laugh. I was able to hear the others shouting and the sound of large forms falling to the ground, i couldn't see anything beyond the black flesh of the Archons hand, but i felt the tip of it's blade poking my stomach.

I heard the sound of _Gungnir_ firing and then the Archon dropped me to the ground as the forearm of its left hand fell along with its blade and me. The smell of blood filled my nose and blood poured out from the remains of its left arm. the Archon was howling in agony and Niren and Lirril opened fire on it, the Archon could only try and block the hail of bullets coming from the two of them as the other five ran towards it with their weapons drawn.

I watched as the others attacked, Talia and Nexus both using the Ice that sprouted from their weapons to weaken the armor, Rennic was somehow causing small explosions on other pieces of its armor from his sabers, and then Mithril and Torque moving in and cutting the bare flesh. It apparently had enough of us attacking and harming it however because it decided to swing it's blade in a wide arc, sending the others flying across the room, the only one who didn't was Talia, she somehow had not been knocked backwards by the attack or shock wave it generated.

"Talia get out of there now!" Niren yelled before loading another clip into _Gungnir_.I watched as Talia stood frozen in fear before the Archon. "Damnit." I gasped out when i stood up, my right arm was wrecked and i couldn't hold _Gram_ in it's current state, as i bent down to pick it up i pulled down on the small trigger that hung down from the crossguard, the blade began to click and slide down to be shorter and the hilt did the same, soon i was holding a shortened version of _Gram_.

Niren had begun to fire off more rounds at the Archon, he managed to sever the other arm and the Archon let out yet another screech, this one made my ears bleed. "Shut the hell up already!" I shouted before rushing towards the Archon and stabbing it in the neck and cutting off its head, the creature fell to the floor, silent.

I stood for a moment longer looking at the carnage in the ruins and saw at least three more Ogres slowly dissolving. "Nice job." Nexus said while walking up behind me, i felt the pain from my broken arm more sharply now that the rush of adrenaline was fading and let out a hiss as the pain slowly built up. "Vanir, how much Aura do you think you have left?" Niren asked me after he finished making sure that Talia was ok.

"Not enough." I said as he crossed the room and lifted my arm up and began to inspect it. "I should be able to give your implants some aura to kickstart the healing process." He said. Before i could protest he grasped my arm tightly and began to use a small amount of his own Aura to get the implants in my body to begin healing the bones. "Fuck!" I yelled when the bones began to fuse and crack back into their proper place.

"Be more careful with your Semblance brother." Niren said to me after i flexed my arm a couple of times, everything was where it should be and nothing was broken anymore. "Uh did you say implants?" Talia asked, everyone but Nexus looked confused about our conversation. "We can talk about it later, for now let's get back to Beacon." I said while returning _Gram_ to its two handed form and sheathing it. Niren would get to explain the implants to the others.

Before anyone could say anything the distinct sound of a Bullheads engines filled the air. "Told you he didn't send any help on purpose." I said to Niren while jabbing him in the side with my elbow. Niren only scowled as he walked out of the ruins, the rest of us following him to the Bullhead, which was landing in the clearing just outside the ruins, i could still sense some Ghouls nearby, that meant that the rest had fled after the Archon was killed.

"Get onboard everyone." Niren said before hopping inside the Bullhead, i did the same and helped anyone who needed to get onboard up. "Hell of a way to begin the year eh?" I asked Niren who had slumped down the side of the Bullhead and closed his eyes. "Haven't fought that hard in a long time Vanir." He said to me sluggishly, the day had finally caught up to us all now and rather than be energetic about surviving the fights we all had a look of lethargy, Nexus however was wide awake still, being an android would do that for you i suppose.

"So? Now what?" I asked Niren as he struggled to stay awake a while longer. "A nap, then we talk to Ozpin." He said before finally drifting away to sleep, i decided to follow his example and close my own eyes for a while too, this was the first time i found it easy to sleep in a small space in the last few months. " _This may actually be a fun four years._ " I thought to myself before i lost consciousness.

 **One hour later**

When the Bullhead finally landed most of us were awake and standing, the only three who weren't were Niren, Talia and Nexus's partner Mithril. I shook Niren awake. "We back at Beacon?" He asked me while rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Yeah, let's go see Ozpin, then get some food if we can." I said with a smile playing across my face as i moved over to Talia and did the same to her. When the eight of us stepped off the Bullhead i saw several people running towards the landing pad, followed by Ozpin and Goodwitch, only Goodwitch seemed to be worried about us all.

"Any reason you didn't see fit to tell us about the Archon sir?" Niren asked Ozpin while leaning on Gungnir for support, he wouldn't admit it but he was about ready to drop from lethargy.

"We did not think it would actually attack." Ozpin said calmly while sipping his drink. "You didn't think the Grimm with an intellect that rivals a human would decide to use overwhelming numbers of Ghouls and Ogres to try and kill eight people?!" I shouted, drawing stares from everyone present. "I know the damned things are rare as hell, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't kill one when you find out that it's within walking distance of you school." I said, slightly more calm now.

"We will talk about that later, for now your teams should get some rest, you will stay in the barn again until we can find rooms for you. Report to my office in the morning after you have had some food." Ozpin said, still calm. There wasn't much arguing with the man at this point, i was too tired to do anything.

"Fine." I said before yawning, the nap i had taken wasn't lasting very long. Everyone else had begun to walk towards the Barn after getting past the medical team that had come out to make sure they were all ok, as i walked toward them all i noticed that Goodwitch actually looked worried about us.

"Warm beds." Talia said before falling down on the nearest mattress that had been laid out for use and pulling the blanket over her. None of us had changed out of our clothes. Everyone else had already claimed a bed for themselves and drifted off to sleep, i went around putting out lights, then moved over to the last bed which was in between Niren and Nexus's partner and lay down on it, i didn't bother with the covers, they would make it harder to sleep tonight.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

When i woke up i realized that i was still wearing my clothes from yesterday and Vanir and Niren were already gone, so was the guy who fought with the dust axe. "Morning." Talia said as she walked over to the door leading outside. "Uh, good morning." I said, still tired from yesterday.

When i stood up i noticed that every muscle in my body was sore and let out a small sigh from the slight pain i felt when moving them. Talia noticed this and laughed. "Sore?" She asked me with a smile on her face, the others were waking up now and rubbing the sleep from their eyes after Talia laughed.

"A little, let's go get some food." I said after i stretched my sore arms for a few seconds. As is in response Talia's stomach growled and she made a face that said yes. After i got my boots on the two of us walked out the door and began to walk over to the Cafeteria, i noticed how few students there were walking around. " _Probably in classes right about now._ " i thought to myself as i began to smell food and looked over to the Cafeteria and saw Niren, Vanir, and Nexus all sitting at a table smiling and talking.

"Huh, guess they decided to get friendly with each other while we all slept." Talia said when she saw them. "Let's go join them." I said as we reached the door and opened it for Talia. My mouth began to water when i smelled the food being cooked in the kitchen. I followed Talia to get a tray of eggs and toast and went to sit down with Vanir and Niren.

"Glad to see they found you Nexus." Vanir said as i sat down before eating another piece of toast. "Morning Lirril." He said after he swallowed it. I began to eat some of my food before answering him. "Good morning." I said calmly.

Vanir went back to eating his food while Niren and Nexus talked, Talia was following Vanir's example and devouring her food.

After a while the others walked into the Cafeteria and got their own food. "So, how about we all just go talk to Ozpin at the same time? It would make things easier on everyone." Mithril suggested after finishing her oatmeal.

I nodded, it would make things easier on us all if we just went at the same time. Besides Ozpin didn't specify that it should be four at a time.

After everyone had finished eating we left the Cafeteria and went towards the tower that Ozpins office was at, as we entered the first floor of the building the secretary did not seem surprised. "Headmaster Ozpin is waiting for you in his office, just take the elevator up to the top level." She said with a smile.

The elevator was cramped with the eight of us trying to fit in, Vanir and Nexus were the largest and took up a large amount of space. "Can this thing go any faster?" Talia asked whoever would answer. " I wish it did." I replied while trying to get some room, i somehow had wound up stuck in between Nexus and a wall. Finally the elevator stopped and the door opened, Rennic ,Mithril, Talia, and Torque all spilled out while Vanir, Niren, Nexus, and I all were able to exit with a bit more grace.

"Good morning." Ozpin said after we had all lined up in front of his desk, he seemed to have found the four people spilling out of the elevator funny. Everyone replied with their own morning greetings.

"I called you in here so that i could assign your teams, as we did not have any time last night. So if you would be so kind as to place the artifacts you retrieved on my desk i will assign teams so that you may go and set up your dorms." Ozpin said before everyone went to place the chess pieces they had picked the previous day. Vanir, Niren, Talia and I all had Black Knight pieces while the others had White Rook pieces.

Ozpin made a humming noise when he saw who had what piece and then cleared his throat before speaking. "Lirril Evergreen, Vanir Argent, Talia Halcyon, and Niren Argent. You have collected the Black Knight pieces, from this day forward you will be known as Team Leviathan." He then turned to the others and said. "Mithril Fullbuster, Nexus, Rennic Arcadius, and Torque Rogue. You have collected the White Rook pieces, from this day forward you will be known as Team Minotaur."

I let out a breath, i actually managed to get into Beacon, not that there had ever been a doubt about it after last night. "You may go to your dorms and rest for the day if you wish or you may go and explore the city, your teachers have already been informed." Ozpin said before taking another sip of his drink.

"Thank you sir." I said before the others could say anything, we could actually use today for rest and relaxation.

 **Well its about time i wrapped this part of the story up, thank you all so much for reading and i hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Niren Argent**_

"We should head to our dorm and get everything set up there before heading to the city." I said, breaking the argument between Vanir and Lirril up. The two of them wanted to do different things, Vanir wanted to head down to the city and walk around for a while and Lirril wanted to go to the dorm and set things up there.

"Thank you Niren." Lirril said triumphantly while Vanir glared at me. "You can get yourself drunk later." I said while following Lirril and Talia who were heading towards the building our dorm was located in.

As the four of us entered the room my reaction was mixed, i didn't mind that it wasn't private, we could fix that with a curtain or something. I did mind the fact that it was too cramped for me to set up a table for working on my gear. "Kinda cramped." Talia said while setting her bags down.

"We need more space." Lirril said while looking around the room. Vanir looked inside one of the two closets and said. "Why is there rope in here?" I was surprised by the rope then had an idea.

"Why not make bunk beds or something, we could make do for now with the rope and pick up some better supplies in the city." I said to the others. Lirril nodded her head and said. "Yeah, that seems like a fine idea." Vanir took the rope from the closet and set it on the floor before saying. "Help me move the beds Talia, Niren and Lirril can tie them up."

After about half an hour of trying to make sure the beds weren't going to fall and punch a hole through the floor i was not pleased at my work. "Let's go get some stuff so i can set them up better." I said while shaking my head.

"Talia, come with me i need some help finding what i need and i want some coffee." I said as the four of us left the station that the Bullhead had left us at. "Alright, so long as you don't spend the entire day trying to find what you need for the beds." She said while following me down the stairs.

"We meet back here in two hours." Lirril said. Vanir looked disappointed since Lirril had decided that he wouldn't go to a bar or club and get drunk but would instead talk to her and figure out a way the two of them could work together. I nodded and turned around, i knew a shop nearby that would have what i needed, and belonged to a member of the Maleficar.

"So how long is this going to take?" Talia said as we walked down the street the shop was on. "A few minutes, then we can hit up a bakery or coffee shop if you know any good ones." I said while sending a message to the owner of the shop on my Scroll. The shops actual owner wasn't in so i wouldn't get any information of the Knights but he did tell me where he was, a small island called Patch apparently he ran the forge at the combat school there.

"This is it." I said after stopping at a small shop that sold simple home improvement items, though it had rooms for any Maleficar that may be passing through the city, Nexus, Vanir, and I had been there for the days leading up to the night we had been arrested.

"Welcome! Is there anything that i can help you with?" The shopkeeper said as a customary greeting. "Just looking for something to hold wooden objects together." I said while walking down a row of metal objects used for projects involving wood. All i needed were some metal plates as well as a drill and some screws to hold them together.

"Is that everything sir?" The Shopkeeper asked me as i brought the items up to the counter. "Yes." I said while digging around in my pocket for my wallet so i could pay for the items and leave. "Thank you for your business." He said as i put my wallet back in my pocket after paying, and taking my items so i could leave.

"You ready to go?" I asked Talia after leaving, we still had about an hour and a half left to kill. "Yeah, i know a good coffee shop just down the street from here, nice part of town." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I glared at Lirril over my cup of coffee, she had decided on the way over from Beacon that the two of us would learn more about each other's fighting styles, while i had wanted to go have a drink at the first bar i could find.

"You know how i fight, i could feel your eyes boring into me during the battle with those Ursai and Beowolves." I said after i set my cup down and looked at the plate that had one muffin left on it, Lirril was already done with hers.

"You fight with reckless abandon. How am i supposed to work with you as a teammate when i can't predict if your going to attack the enemy or me?" Lirril said sourly, i couldn't deny that she was right about how i fight, in the past i was known for wounding and even killing Knights who were too close to me in the middle of a fight.

"The safest way to fight as my partner, is to keep your distance from me if a battle drags on for more than ten minutes. The most efficient way is to stick close to me so i can help keep them from overwhelming you." I said as i picked up the muffin and took a bit from it, blueberry, not a bad flavor.

"Which would you recommend?" Lirril asked me as she took another bite of her own muffin, i swallowed and said. "At the begining stick close, but if it goes on for a long time and i begin to act increasingly savage, do your best to put some distance between us."

I took another bit of my muffin and sat chewing while Lirril was thinking, by the time she was finished thinking i had finished both my muffin and my coffee. "Alright, i can try it your way and see how it goes." She said, i smiled and leaned forward in my chair. "Now… tell me about _your_ fighting style." I said with a grin on my face.

"If you must know, i prefer to finish a battle quickly, my semblance is Air and i usually just use it to create small cyclones to get rid of or incapacitate groups of enemies." Lirril said quickly. "Do you fight with tactics, or like i do?" I responded with interest.

"I prefer to use tactics more than force, i am not very durable." Lirril said with a sigh. I thought for a moment before responding. "Fine, stay back with Niren and leave the front of the battle to me and Talia." I said with a hand on my chin.

"What?" Lirril asked, confused by my choice. "You aren't very tough, and you like to stay back, that chakram of your's is able to become SMG's right? You could cover Niren while he covers me and Talia from enemies that we miss." I explained to her. Lirril stared at me while i finished my coffee.

"Fine, but i want to go over this with the others," She said after she drank the rest of hers and held up a hand to the waiter. "Whatever." I said while stretching, this whole afternoon could have been more enjoyable if i had been able to go to a bar.

"You don't have to be so angry about it." Lirril said to me while writing her name on the bill and leaving some money for the waiter as a tip. "I can be angry if i want." I said while walking over to the door and picking up _Gram_ , they didn't let me have it with me at the table.

"Did you have to bring your sword with you?" Lirril asked as we left the building and i was adjusting the sheath on my back. "Yes." I said before walking towards the airship landing.

 _ **Talia Halcyon**_

I finished drinking my cup of hot chocolate and was eating another cinnamon roll while Niren slowly finished his cup of tea. "So you want me to fight up front with Vanir and Lirril if she decides to stick with him?" I asked after he set his cup down.

"Yes, you can take a hit and so can he, Lirril may have to cover me while i cover you two though so we won't know for sure until we all talk about it." Niren said as he reached for a cinnamon roll.

"What about using our Semblances?" I asked as i used a napkin to clean some of the frosting off my hand. "Vanir's semblance isn't like your's, he can move his Aura to protect one specific part of his body or to heal his wounds with incredible speed but that's about it. Your's on the other hand can affect the area around you." Niren explained before taking a bite out of his cinnamon roll.

"I can only make ice if there's a liquid around me." I said before turning the remaining tea in his cup to ice, Niren glared at me, not amused by what i did. "Does that include blood inside an enemy?" He asked me with an eyebrow raised.

"So… you noticed what i did to one of those Ogres did you?" I asked him while he nodded and finished the rest of his pastry. "When i saw the black shards of ice sprouting from it i figured that you can only make the ice if there is moisture present." Niren said before holding his arm up, signaling the waitress to give us the bill.

"Why do you need that kukri?" I asked Niren as he put the large knife back in its sheath, he hesitated before responding. "Me and Vanir have some problems that give some individuals reason to attack us in the city." He said quickly before heading towards the airship landing at a fast pace.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

I was pacing back and forth while Vanir leaned against a pillar, Talia and Niren were both late and Vanir had to pay the pilot to wait for them. "Where the hell are they?" I asked no one.

"Give them some time to actually get here, Niren needed to find a store remember?" Vanir said before pulling a small metal flask out and opening it. "Is that alcohol?" I asked when i saw it.

"It might be." Vanir said before taking a long drink from it. "Put that away, in fact get rid of it!" I said while walking over to him, he quickly shoved it into an inside pocket of his duster before hold up a hand and saying. "Medicine inside that helps with my airsickness, in fact it has a very low amount of alcohol in it." He said this with a grimace on his face.

"You aren't going to be drinking all the time are you?" I asked after running a hand down my face. "Vanir's drinking problem is hardly an issue, as much as it would please me to see him stop entirely, it's just not gonna happen." Niren said while walking up the last couple of steps with Talia.

"You knew about it but haven't tried to stop it?" I asked while turning around to face him. "Oh believe me, he has tried." Vanir said while Niren nodded and said. "Only to receive a broken arm for my efforts, though that flask is for airsickness." I could only growl in frustration at my team and the problems that they had.

"The airship is waiting, let's argue back at Beacon." Vanir said while heading towards the landing pad that the Bullhead was waiting on. "Fine." I said while moving to follow him, the others right behind me.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I disliked the high collar of Beacon's uniform for male students, it felt too much like the dress uniforms the Knights forced me to wear whenever i had to go to a meeting. "Fuck it." I said as i tossed the tie on my bed.

"What's wrong?" Lirril asked when she walked out of the bathroom, she was already in the female version of the uniform i was having problems with. "Blasted tie." I said before moving towards the bathroom to brush my teeth.

"Wear the damn tie Vanir." Lirril said to me as i brushed my teeth. "No, i hate looking too formal." I said after rinsing my mouth. Lirril only growled before throwing the tie at me.

"Give it up Lirril, he won't wear the damn thing, besides Ozpin did say we are allowed to make some slight changes to the usual design of them, and Vanir as he has said doesn't like ties." I nodded to Niren as he finished getting himself ready, He could actually stand looking formal.

"Fine." Lirril said as she set the tie down and i left the bathroom. "Let's just get this day over with." Talia said as she stood up from her bunk and stretched her arms.

The first few classes of the day were boring, talking about flora and fauna that wouldn't kill us or attract Grimm wasn't interesting when you knew everything about the subject already. I was slowly drifting off into sleep when i felt a sharp jab to my side, i glared over at Lirril who was only looking at the teacher and paying attention to the lecture.

After what felt like an eternity of boring class after boring class we finally found something interesting in Professor Port's lesson, it was about the many types of Grimm and how to fight them, though these strategies are something i already knew i still found the lecture to be enjoyable.

"Which of you has what it takes to be a Huntsman or Huntress?" Port asked near the end of the lesson after a few moments of awkward silence i slowly raised my hand just to get this over with. "I suppose that i have the skills for the job." I said with a short sigh as i saw the professor's face light up with a smile beneath that glorious mustache.

"Good Mr. Argent, then you can show the rest of the class those skills in a duel of sorts." Port said enthusiastically. "Here we go." Niren mumbled to Talia who was looking concerned by the savage grin creeping across my face.

When i returned to the classroom i noticed that there was a large cage opposite of me and that there was obviously a Grimm inside. "So, how are we doing this? Do i just wait until it breaks free or do you let it out?" I asked Port as i drew _Gram_ from its sheath. "I'm just going to cut the lock and see what happens." Port said while raising the weapon in his hands

"Fine by me." I said as i entered a basic stance that had the blade held out in front of me and angled enough to act as a spear for the Grimm to impale itself on. As Port raised his axe to cut the lock i slowed my breathing down and allowed my semblance to take control soon my senses were heightened, i could smell the bloodlust from Grimm, the fear from the other students and my own fear as well, i focused on that fear to further enhance the effects i was experiencing the only downside to doing this was that it felt like an eternity for Port to break that lock.

"Shit!" I shouted as a massive Ursa rushed out of the cage at me, simple impalement wouldn't work on this one, it was too large the only thing i could do was roll out of it's way and let the tip of _Gram_ nick it's flesh.

My movements and the Grimm's looked slow to me, though i was aware of my speed being faster than normal humans and faunus could achieve, I was able to track the path of the Ursa's paws while they moved and used this to my advantage. I ducked under another swing and swung _Gram_ in a large arc, cutting off one of the Ursa's arms and quickly jumping back to avoid being hit as it roared in rage and swung its other arm wildly.

As the Ursa rushed at me again i noticed a small break in the plates near it's necks base. "I can end this then." I thought to myself after rolling to the side and quickly took off the other arm and it's right leg in two quick slashes as the Ursa lay on the ground, bleeding i stood up and brought _Gram_ up and down, decapitating the monster in two cuts, one to break through it's armor, the other to actually take the head off.

"Well done!" Port said as i stood looking down at the dissolving carcass in front of me, my semblance hadn't worn off yet and i felt like i could take on another horde of Ghouls, though i knew i couldn't actually do that, i was aware of a slight warmth just behind my heart. "May i go change please?" I asked Port as he was going on about my ability as a fighter. "Of course Mr. Argent, you've earned a respite after that amazing display." Port said rather cheerfully. "Thank you sir." I said while bowing, as i left the room i slid _Gram_ back into its sheath, good thing about Grimm blood was that it also dissolved.

 _ **Mordred Pendragon**_

I looked down at the report that Argo had tossed onto my desk. "What's this?" I asked him as he sat on the backrest of the metal chair in front of my desk. "Dossier's on the three Maleficar at the school's new allies, inside agents did a good job on digging that stuff up." Argo said dismissively.

"Good, i want to go over these and spend time observing them before i decide on a course of action, i need to know routes they take that will be ideal for ambushes that wont harm to many civilians." I said as i picked up the first dossier, it was filled with information on the leader of the team Vanir and Niren had been placed in.

"Could always let me hit them hard at any time." Argo said with a shrug as he went to leave my office. "We will not harm civilians Argo." I said darkly as i looked out the window to the streets below, cars and pedestrians filled it with noise.

"Just a suggestion if your shadow war doesn't work out well." Argo said as he left my office and closed the door rather loudly. "Blighted fool, if i turn him loose he may wind up destroying several city blocks." I mumbled to myself as i prepared myself for hours of reading.

After about three hours i found myself at the last dossier, this one was simply titled Rennic Arcadius i opened up the file and began to read when a synthetic voice began to speak. "Sir, Boris wishes to speak with you, is now a bad time?" I folded the page i was on a stretched back in my seat before answering. "Send him in." At this point i wanted something that wasn't the personal life of my enemy to interact with.

Boris walked in and gave me a salute as i pulled out a bottle of whiskey, a personal favorite of his. "At ease boris." I said while pouring the amber liquid into two glasses filled with ice. "Argo seems aggressive today." Boris said after drinking the entire glass. I drank the whiskey from my own glass before answering him "damn fool thinks i should order an attack on the Maleficar after finding out where they go in the city, or launch an attack on the school itself."

"We should see how the usual tactic works out first, if we can't kill them that way then we should consider a more extreme plan." Boris said while i refilled the glasses. "When do i start fighting them then?" Boris asked me while twirling his glass before taking a swig and setting it on my desk upside down. "Tonight, some of the scouts reported the two main targets leaving the school for some reason." I said before draining my own glass and setting it upside down on the desk.

"Right, i'll have some men tail them and if they hit up a few bars we can wait until their drunk before attacking." Boris said with a slight grin on his face. "Not a very honorable way to attack." I said with a frown as I stood up and began to walk over to the back of the office, beyond the back wall was my quarters. "They didn't show much honor when they wiped out our outposts in the rest of the city." Boris said before saluting and leaving my office.

"Nobody understands honor anymore it seems." I said to myself as i entered my room and practically threw myself into bed, exhausted from several days of work without rest.

 _ **Niren Argent**_

"So what the hell did you want to talk about that required leaving the school?" I asked Vanir as we showed our ID's to the bouncer and entered the bar.

"The fuck do you think i wanted to talk about?" Vanir asked me as we walked over to a table in the corner to wait for some food and alcohol to served to us. "The Knights." I said calmly while reclining in the booth and letting out a yawn.

"How are we gonna deal with them?" Vanir asked me while leaning forward in interest. "No clue, at night most likely, bring us some type of fish if you have any." I said to the young woman who walked up to us with a notepad in her hands. "And some whiskey too please." Vanir said before she turned to leave.

"How are we going to sneak out without Lirril and Talia noticing? Eventually the fatigue will start to show." I stated as the waitress brought us some type of breaded fish and large glasses filled with whiskey. "This is pretty damn good." Vanir said to me after trying the fish, I decided to give it a try too if he found it to be good.

After a while the two of us were filled up on food and only a few drinks, not enough to make us drunk but enough to blur our vision slightly in the event of a fight our Aura would most likely burn off the remaining alcohol in our systems. "Shall we head back then?" I asked Vanir after he finished eating the rest of the food on the plate. "Yeah." Vanir said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out enough Lien to pay off the bill and give the waitress a fair deal in tips.

As the two of us left the bar I became aware of several groups of people following us, trying to make their movements discreet. "Vanir, you sense them too right?" I asked my brother as my hand slowly slid down to the kukri i kept on hand. "Yeah, let's lead them to an alleyway at least before we start killing each other." Vanir said while turning into a nice secluded alley and unsheathing Gram which he had picked up from the bouncer.

"Stop right there Maleficar." A Knight barked out at the two of us. "So they only sent basic's after us then?" I asked while slowly turning to face the Knight and his backup. "Looks like they plan on using numbers to their advantage." Vanir said as we stood back to back i became aware of several more Knights enter from the side Vanir was currently facing.

"You fools went to a bar and drank alcohol when you knew we would be coming?" The Knight asked with surprise at the fact that we were aware of what was going on. "A little whiskey isn't enough to make either of us intoxicated, we gonna fight or what?" Vanir said while keeping an eye on his targets.

"Kill them." The Knight said as his men rushed at the two of us. "Vanir, handle your guys." I said before ducking underneath a swing from an eager knight and cutting his stomach open with my kukri, he fell to the ground trying to keep his guts inside of his stomach, before any more knights could rush us the sound of several bodies hitting the ground and Vanir grunting as he swung _Gram_ drew everyone's attention, the bastard had actually managed to decapitate seven knights at once.

"Who's next?!" He asked while slowly approaching the remaining seven knights on his end, I took advantage of the moment to charge another knight and slit his throat, i also took his sidearm and emptied the clip into three more knights, I had only eight to deal with, most of them were dead at this point and Vanir had made short work of his targets, before i could move to kill another knight i saw _Gram_ fly by my head and impale another knight on a wall.

"Demons." The Knight said in terror as I killed the last knight in my way before putting a bullet between his eyes. "Not gonna question them?" Vanir asked as he pulled _Gram_ out of the knight and swung it once to get the blood off. "No." I said while sheathing my kukri and dropping the pistol on the ground.

"Looks like they want to keep fighting in the shadows for now, keep citizens from being harmed." I said as the two of us began walking down the street to the airship landing so that we could return to Beacon. "Great, so in order to keep them from coming after us at the school, we have to come down here every so often?" Vanir asked me while yawning.

"Correct, we won't be letting Lirril or Talia know about our activities." I said before pulling Vanir into another alley and taking cover behind a dumpster, a moment later a young couple walked past the alley, laughing. "Ozpin won't be happy about this." Vanir said to me after we entered the air dock and waited for the Bullhead to arrive and take us back to Beacon.

"Of course he won't, that's why i'm trusting that he will most likely know about this happening on his own." I said as the sound of thrusters could be heard above us. "Let's hope he understands why we're doing this then." Vanir said to me as he began to walk to the landing pad. "Let's hope." I said as i began to follow him.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

"Hey Lirril, we need to talk when we get a chance." Talia said to me as we were leaving the last class of the day, before i could answer i was almost knocked off my feet by Dr. Oobleck, the man was insanely fast from whatever type of coffee he drank. "What about?" I asked my team mate as i began walking towards our dorms. "Vanir and Niren, they both seem really tired for some reason." Talia said we walked

"I know, you think they're just staying up late to finish their assignments?" I replied as we left the building devoted to lectures. Talia shook her head in disagreement before responding "This seems more like battle fatigue, like they have been fighting every night or something." I stopped walking for a moment before looking for a more secluded place to talk to her.

"You don't think it has anything to do with that first night the two of them vanished on us?" I asked after we found a shaded spot a little way off from the other students who were enjoying the day. "It might, should we keep an eye on them?" Talia asked after thinking about the question for a little while.

"We shouldn't worry about it too much, their grades haven't dropped and they only seem tired for now." I said as i pulled out a small book and pencil and began to draw the city skyline. "I gonna get some food." Talia said after reading a book for a while and left me to my drawing, i only hummed in response.

After an hour of drawing my stomach began to grumble and I decided to go and find myself some food from the Cafeteria, as I made my to the building i saw the rest of my team through one of the windows, they were sitting with team MNTR and seemed to be having a good time. "Lirril! Get over here!" talia yelled at me when she saw me getting some food.

"What's going on?" I asked as i set my tray down and began to eat the meal in front of me. "Niren was just talking about a time when he and Vanir had been trapped in a ruined temple with Grimm." Talia said while leaning forward in anticipation of whatever niren would say next. "It wasn't just Vanir and I, we also had Nexus and a few others, most notably the man who taught us how to survive." Niren said after taking a drink from his cup

"What happened?" I asked while setting down my fork. "There were at least twenty of us, we had been hired to take out a large nest of Grimm and tracked them to an old temple in the middle of the woods, turns out it wasn't the usual type of Grimm." Niren said before taking a moment to breathe. "We stumbled onto the entrance to a nest filled with Ghouls and Ogres." Vanir said after swallowing a piece of meat. "How did you handle it?" I asked while starting to eat again.

"We waited until night for the Grimm to show themselves and then we fought them until they fell back, that kept up for three days straight until we finally noticed that their numbers were far less than before." Niren said after realizing that he was out of tea. "The Grimm were wiped out after an Archon showed up and was killed by our mentor." Vanir said to us after finishing the rest of his food.

"That sounds intense." I said after they had finished the story. "Yes, it was." Vanir said before getting up to get rid of the dishes he had used. "Nexus, we need to speak with you later if that's ok." Niren said to nexus who only nodded. "What's going on?" I asked Niren as he stood up to leave. "Nothing, Vanir and I just had a question that only Nexus can answer." Niren said before Vanir made his way back to the table and the three of them left the rest of us at the table.

"So, any clue why those three have suddenly started getting all secretive about some of their chats?" Mithril asked once they were out of earshot while leaning forward and placing her hands in front of her mouth. "I've been wondering that myself." I said while looking over my shoulder to see them leave, though I could have sworn the i saw Vanir look back at me and give me a dark look.

"Niren and Vanir seem really tired recently too." Talia said, joining in the conversation. "Nexus has also been leaving and showing up late as well." Rennic said after yawning. "What?" I asked, surprised that Nexus was involved. "Torque was the one who saw him." Rennic said while patting the quiet man's shoulder. "Was looking at the stars, saw Nexus returning with Vanir and Niren." He said while looking down at the cup of tea in front of him.

"Think we should tail them Mithril?" I asked, I felt suspicious of my teammates now and wanted to know just what they were up to. "If their in some kind of trouble we don't have a choice but to help them." Mithril said with a grin spreading across her face.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I said on the top of a roof, looking down at the loading docks as Argent Knights were unloading crates of Dust, the night vision optics on my mask allowed me to see the Schnee Dust Company logo on the sides of the containers. "Niren, you see the logo too right?" I asked quickly.

" _Yes, Nexus is already moving in and has dealt with some Knights on the perimeter, move up._ " Niren responded to me, I only grinned beneath the mask and unsheathed _Gram_ , eager to start slaughtering the poor sods below. " _Don't kill them all we need at least two for questioning_." Niren warned me before I got too close to the Knights. "Yeah yeah, leave a survivor." I replied before moving up against a container and switching my visors visor to thermal to get a good idea of how many Knights were near me.

"I heard something." A knight said after I hit the side of a crate a little too hard. "Probably just a rat." Another one said in response. "I wouldn't say that i'm a rat." I called out to the two of them before turning around the corner and tossing _Gram_ into one and pulling out a throwing knife and doing the same to the second.

"Two Knights dealt with Niren. How's Nexus doing?" I ask after reporting my encounter. "He's waiting on you to get to your mark and start the show, as am I." Niren said to me in an annoyed tone. "Right." I said as i pulled out the knife and _Gram_ and began to moving up.

"Hurry up with that cargo! Delta squad hasn't shown up yet either." A knight said to his underlings as I slowly walked out of the shadows of a crate, laughing maliciously and letting the voice modulator in the mask alter my voice to sound demonic. "Is this your delta squad?" I asked before tossing the helmets of the twos knights i killed in front of me.

"Maleficar…." The knight said quietly as all the activity on the docks stopped. "You should really train your dogs to pay more fucking attention to their surroundings." I said just as Nexus threw _Kyofu_ at a few knights, it's red blade dissolving after making contact. "Wha-" The head knight said just as Gram plunged into his gut, I was grinning like a madman as I tossed him into a few more knights.

"Crazy bastard." Niren said over comms as he began to pick off more Knights with _Gungnir_. "Just having fun brother." I replied as Nexus and me found ourselves surrounded by angry knights. "I'll take the ten on my side, you take the twenty on your's." I said to the android, another grin playing across my face.

 **Note: Finally got a chance to post something, thanks for reading any suggestions are very much welcome.**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Talia Halcyon**_

I jumped when i heard what sounded like an explosion and the distant crackle of gunfire. "Where's that coming from?" I asked Lirril as we both looked for any smoke or stray bullets flying into the air. "No clue." She replied to me just as her scroll began to ring, it was Mithril calling her.

"Do you know where that gunfire is coming from?" Lirril asked after setting the call to speaker mode. " _Yeah, Rennic figured it out, head down to the docks, follow the sounds of battle he says._ " Mithril said to us, she sounded like she was running towards the fight already. "Right, see you there." Lirril said before hanging up. "So, how do you wanna handle this?" I asked Lirril as we began to head towards the docks at full speed.

"We help Vanir and the others, try and incapacitate the enemy and figure out what the hell is going on here." Lirril said as she pulled _Garuda_ off her back, I did the same with _Oblivion_ , feeling a bit more safe with the familiar weight in my hands. "And if we can't incapacitate the enemy?" I asked in between breaths. "Then we aren't left with the option of not killing them." Lirril said after a few moments, the hesitation told me she really didn't want to consider that option.

As we stopped for a minute to catch our breaths the sounds of battle became much louder, after we got ready to keep moving again we heard the noise of a large explosion and looked over to see a dark column of smoke rising from the docks. "Come on." I said after patting Lirril on the shoulder and started to run again.

 _ **Niren Argent**_

I barely managed to avoid being blown apart by a rocket that was launched by a light walker the Knights had brought in, I looked down at the battle and saw that Vanir and Niren were still pinned down by combined fire from the infantry and walker. "Niren, you still alive up there?" Vanir's voice crackled in my ear, "Still here, optics in my mask are fucked though." I said calmly before removing it and placing it on my belt. "Good, try and deal with that walker, we can't move a fucking inch with that .50 Cal." Vanir responded before picking up a pistol lying next to him and leaning out of cover to fire at the infantry.

"On it." I said as I picked up Gungnir and took aim at the small bipedal walker, I could either aim for on of the leg joints or the pilots. Either option was good at this point " _Hurry up Niren, can't hold them back much longer._ " Vanir said a second before i pulled the trigger, a moment later the gun fell silent and Vanir and Nexus were already rushing the Knights. " _Hit the fuel tank on that thing damnit!_ " Vanir yelled over comms as I wiped some blood from my eyes and took aim again, this time at the walkers fuel tank. "Firing." I said as I pulled the trigger and watched the metal monstrosity go up in flames with a loud bang.

I stood up and began to look for a quick way down to the fight, no point in staying where I was, another walker might show up, or worse a Bullhead. "Fuck!" I shouted after landing, the rocket did more damage to me that I first thought. "You alright?" Nexus asked as he helped me get up. "Might've broken an ankle." I said as i put a bit of weight on my left leg. "Yeah, definitely broken, damn rocket launchers." I said after shifting my weight to my right leg.

"Stay behind us and snipe, don't need you dying." Vanir said after pulling _Gram_ out from another knight. I looked at the group of knights that had us backed against a container, there was at least forty of them left. "Where the hell did these fuckers come from?" Vanir asked in an annoyed tone. "I brought them." A familiar voice said as the crowd of knights parted to let the person it came from through, my jaw dropped slightly when i saw who it was.

"It's been awhile, hasn't it Niren?" Boris said after crossing his arms and smirking. "Boris, I should've known it was you sending those small frys after us." I said while taking aim at the Knight of the Round. "Enough games, time to die Maleficar." Boris said as his men raised their guns and took aim at us. "Not letting that happen!" A woman shouted a moment before an explosion sent some of Boris's men flying a few feet in the air.

"What the?" Boris asked, turning his attention from us to get a view of the new attackers, this proved to be a mistake when Vanir rushed at him, preparing to cut off his head. "Vanir look out!" I shouted as Vanir barely managed to block a massive stream of flame with _Grams_ blade. "Fuck!" Vanir shouted while holding his side, it looked like he got nicked by some flames after all. "You aren't going to lay a finger on Sir Boris." A large knight holding a massive flamethrower said as Boris began to order his men to engage the new foes.

"Deal with Niren and Nexus ,Kain I want their heads." Boris said as he unsheathed his own blades and moved to engage Vanir. "Nexus, keep him busy while I figure out that things weak points." I said to the android, who had just swapped out his dust canister, _Kyofu's_ blade change to a light blue color, looks like he was going with ice for this one. "Got it." He replied to me as he slowly began to circle around the knight.

I started picking off Knights who decided to try and gang up on Nexus, meanwhile jets of flame were being spewed across the dockyard from Nexus and Kain's battle "Niren see whos fighting over there!" Nexus shouted to me after he blocked another burst of flame. "Got it." I replied before getting up slowly and climbing on top of the crate directly behind me, the Schnee Dust company logo was on the side. "Glad that didn't get hit." I thought to myself as i got on top.

As i picked off a few Knights from the back of the crowd i caught a glimpse of a scythe being wielded, followed by a pair of sabers. "Shit." I said before reloading _Gungnir_ and began to fire again. "Well? Who is it?" Nexus asked after getting some distance put between him and Kain. "It's your team." I said before turning my attention to Kain again, I shot off a few rounds to put him on guard before I lept of the crate, swinging _Gungnir_ above my head, hoping to bury the axe head in the Knight's neck.

"Not going to work traitor!" Kain shouted after blocking my strike with his weapon, as he threw me back into the air I quickly repositioned myself to fire another bullet at him, a moment later the bastard shot another stream of flame and melted the round. "Fuck." I said calmly before firing the remaining bullets at him, none of them made contact.

"Nexus, buy me time I have an idea." I said to the android calmly before running behind another crate. "Fine." Nexus said, swapping out the spent container in _Kyofu_ for a fresh one. "If normal rounds won't cut it, I'm just going to have to go for something a little more flashy." I mumbled to myself as i loaded in a new clip labeled with H.E. "This ought to do the trick." I thought after loading the clip in.

I was broken out of my train of thought by someone yelling out my name "Niren!" Talia said before running up to me, with Lirril in tow. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Lirril asked me angrily, creating small gusts of wind with her weapon in the process. "Fighting a battle I suppose." I replied before standing up slowly, a small groan escaped from my mouth as I did so.

"You look like you're about to kick the bucket honestly." Talia said to me sourly as she stood up. "I got shot by a rocket so yeah, I may look like i'm on death's door right now." I replied before climbing onto the crate. "Go help Nexus or the others if you want, I promise to tell you what's going on after this is over." I said to the two of them from on top of the crate.

"You better." Lirril said as she ran out to help Nexus, who was getting his ass handed to him by Kain at this point. "That ice of yours may come in handy here." I said to Talia while quickly checking my scope, it was still working. "Niren… what's going on?" She asked me, I lowered _Gungnir_ for a moment before replying "A war, one that you all should never have been involved in. Now go help Lirril and Nexus, please." I only heard her running into the fight as i continued to get myself ready.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

As I turned the corner I finally saw the full extent of the battle, there were corpses littering the ground and a large mass of people fighting on the other side of the docks, with at least twenty still at my end. "Talia! We need to deal with these guys before helping Nexus!" I shouted to the other girl who was behind me. "Right, how should we handle them?" She asked while readying _Oblivion_. "Kill them!" Niren shouted from the crate he was on. "What?!" I asked in shock I was still running, no point in stopping now.

"The Knights won't stop until they're dead, you can try and knock them out but I wouldn't advise it." Niren replied. "Let's just deal with them!" Talia shouted before running towards a group of three and burying her axe in one of their backs. "Damnit." I said through clenched teeth, my father had told me that killing was never an option unless it was a Grimm, and here I was about to kill at least five people. Before I could react I was fighting two of these guys at once, they fought with simple gunswords and tried to fall back and gun me down when i blocked their attacks and almost shredded their hands with _Chirada_ and _Suparna_.

"Damn! Kill the bitch!" One of them yelled as two more showed up. "Damnit." I said as I quickly lept into the air, using my weapon rapid spinning motion to help me levitate for a short while. I glanced over at Talia and saw several corpses near her. "Lirril you have to kill them, this isn't the time to be squeamish!" She yelled at me after slashing another Knights torso with _Oblivion_.

"DAMMIT!" I shouted before creating a massive cyclone with my semblance, if I had to kill anyone it would be as quick as possible, with little blood. "Woah." Talia said to me after I finally landed and saw the cost of my fighting, I felt sick for a moment before feeling searing heat dangerously close to me.

"We still gotta deal with that guy." Talia said to me after we both looked over at the fight Nexus was in, I was surprised at his agility someone his size shouldn't have been able to dodge those flames. "Right." I said as i began to gather more air currents to try and buy Talia some time to close the distance.

"Lirril! Talia!, Keep that guy distracted, I figured out a weak point on his weapon!" Niren shouted to us as Talia began to charge at the man with the massive flamethrower. "Hey asshole!" She shouted as he batted Nexus away. "More Maleficar… Bring it on!" The man shouted as he pulled the trigger and a massive stream of flames were launched at Talia only to be intercepted a large cyclone "Like hell you'd kill me that easy!" Talia shouted as she managed to bury _Oblivion_ in the front of his flamethrower.

"You bitch!" He shouted before tossing Talia in the air with _Oblivion_ still in her hands. "I got you!" I shouted before creating a large air current to slow Talia's descent. "Thanks." She said to me as I helped her up, when we turned around to face our opponent he was enraged. "Now i'm going to enjoy turning you to ashes." He said savagely. "Damn." I said as I got ready to try and block another attack, though my aura was starting to fail me from the repeated uses.

Before anyone could do anything though there was a loud noise that sounded like something being tossed, I noticed a vapor trail from Nirens crate and saw him laying on his belly, looking down his sight. "GET DOWN!" Nexus shouted as he suddenly tackled us, a moment later there was an explosion followed by a pained scream as the man was sent flying through the air, missing most of one arm and half the other.

"That was close." Nexus said while standing up slowly, when my vision got back to normal I gasped when I saw the cuts on his face, rather than bleed they were..sparking. "Ah hell." He said after noticing my stare. "He lifted his right arm to inspect the cuts and stopped short of his face. "Great." He said simply when he saw the mechanical parts that made up the entire thing. "You two.. Just stay put for now and I can explain this later." He said while picking up his weapon and running towards the other battle. "So...that happened." Talia said to me, equally confused and scared.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I had managed to push Borris back after getting a decent cut on his stomach, though to be honest I was faring as well, several stab wounds and cuts covered my torso and face, the man may have been old but he could still show me up in a straight up fight. "Now then, you will die here Maleficar." He said while assuming his stance once more.

:I don't think so." I said just as a massive explosion went off behind us, I heard Kain screaming in pain and rage too. "Ooh, that sounds bad." I said while looking over my shoulder, hoping the old man would take the bait. "Kain!" He shouted while trying to get past me, only to receive more cuts and stab wounds. "Let me past damnit! Don't you have any decency!?" Boris yelled at me while clutching his shoulder. "None of that was shown to the Maleficar in Vacuo, so no." I said venomously.

"I see then." Boris said as he made ready to fight me once again. "Look around old man… you've lost this one, your Knights lay in pools of blood and your prodigy is crippled, we've won this fight." I said while plunging _Gram_ into the ground and motioning with my right arm.

"It's not over until every last man lies dead." Boris said to me with wrath. "It's over when I say it's over Ser Boris!" A familiar voice shouted, a voice that made my smile turn into an annoyed frown. "Mordred….." I growled as I turned to face him, the flames made him look menacing in the heavy armor he was wearing, the two blue upward facing arrows seemed angelic in this light.

"Vanir, given how this has gone, you and your allies have won, Boris shall pull out and we will not speak of this to the authorities." Mordred said with authority. "Fine by me, this was becoming boring anyway, this mess however is going to need explaining." I said as nicely as I could.

"The White Fang attempted to steal some Dust and your people managed to be in the area to stop them." Mordred said calmly, this was the usual excuse, blame it on the faunus radicals and the police and kingdoms just kept an eye for them a little more. "If I happen to find you in a battle like this again though Vanir, I won't hesitate to end your miserable life." Mordred said to me as he turned to leave with his men, who were now getting on their bullheads. "I wouldn't have it any other way." I said to him as he boarded his ship and left.

"Vanir! You owe us an explanation!" Lirril shouted as she decked me. "I deserved that, but so does Niren and Nexus." I said while moving my jaw back into it's socket, the girl could hit hard. "You had better start talking mister." Lirril said to me angrily. "Lay off would you?" Mithril said to her as she walked over with the rest of her team, they had covered up the mechanical parts of Nexus with bandages for the time being. "Stay out of this Mithril." Lirril said to the other girl.

"When we get back to the school I can explain the situation, for now I would like to let the cops do their jobs." I said while standing up, my entire body was going to be sore tomorrow. "Actually Mr. Argent, Professor Ozpin would like a word with you." Glynda Goodwitch said as she walked over to the eight of us. "Great." I said with a heavy sigh as I began to follow the woman back to the bullhead she had taken to get here.

 _ **An hour later**_

"Mr. Argent, can you please go over what you just said again? I find myself confused." Ozpin said to me as I once again tried to get the handcuffs off my wrists. "I might be inclined to go more in depth if they would free my arms, this feels more like an interrogation rather than the friendly old man in charge of a school trying to help me, what are these made of anyway, if they were the standard cuffs i could just break them." I responded.

"The cuffs are reinforced steel, as to why they insisted on you wearing them I'm not sure." Ozpin said to me nonchalantly. "No point in trying to break them then." I said as I settled back down again. "So.. you can begin by telling me who you really are Mr. Argent." Ozpin said, settling down in his chair. "My name is indeed Vanir Argent, Niren is not a brother by birth but rather by blood, given what we have both gone through the last few years, and Nexus is an adroid we picked up last year." I replied once again, this time in a way that was believable.

"Go on." Ozpin responded when I was done. "Very well then, Vanir, if you and Niren knew of this problem why didn't you simply tell me about it?" He asked me kindly. "We figured you already had an idea that this was happening, and decided to let this happen the way it did, so you would know the true threat." I replied before yawning.

"I see, you and Niren attempted to keep the collateral damage to minimum as well." Ozpin said to me after offering me a mug of coffee, which I gladly accepted. "Yeah, our allies attempt to do the same, the walker and flamethrower were unexpected however, I didn't think that Boris would actually do that." I responded after feeling the caffeine enter my system. "Well Mr. Argent, I'm going to allow you and Niren to remain out of jail for now, though it may be best to have you and your team leave the city for a while, though we can talk about that tomorrow." Ozpin while standing up and unlocking the handcuffs.

"Fine by me sir." I said while rubbing my wrists, my aura was already healing the chaffing and I had to hold back another yawn. "Now, please go and get some rest, and if there is ever another problem please do not hesitate to come to me about it." Ozpin said before leaving the room.

 _ **The Next Day**_

"Go over that again i'm confused." Talia said after Niren and I finished explaining why we were fighting the Knights. "Fine." I said with a sigh, Talia was good at fighting and some classes but she had a short attention span.

"The last few years of our lives have been spent fighting against a force similar to the White Fang called the Argent Knights, though their purpose is less clear." Niren said, trying to keep it brief and to the point for Talia.

"We were once a part of their ranks but defected with a large number of others, who took up the name Maleficar. Though last night you saw the more bloody side of our war, it's usually done on a much smaller scale, anything larger the Knights wind up blaming the white fang for." I said while throwing on my coat. Lirril rose from the bed she and Talia were sitting on and said calmly "So now Ozpin wants us to leave on our mission early that way things can calm down in the city?"

"That's the gist of it yes." I said while walking over to the door. "We don't even know what he wants us to do yet and you're just going along with it?" Lirril asked me as we all stepped out into the hallway. "Yeah." Niren said after letting the door close. "Let's just get this over with then." Lirril said with a sigh as we began to walk down the dorms hall.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

As I walked towards Ozpins tower I noticed some of the other students were staring at us and felt discomfort from it. "Look at them all, thinking I can't hear their petty insults." Vanir said to me quietly, as if he could tell I was uncomfortable. "You can hear them talking from so far away?" I whispered back with surprise as we kept walking.

"Of course, these ears aren't just for show you know." Vanir said with a smile as the two wolf ears on the side of his head twitched with what looked like joy. "What are they saying then?" I asked him once there weren't that many students around. "Just the usual things teens say when they think high or low of someone who did something impressive." Vanir replied as we reached Ozpins office.

"Huh." I said as we reached the door and it opened up, the secretary looked up from her desk and said "Professor Ozpin is expecting you." She went back to work after that and we walked over to the elevator.

"What kind of mission is he going to send us on?" Talia asked anyone who would answer. "Probably some kind of investigation, given the popularity surrounding last night we may have to be gone for a while." I said as the elevator reached its destination and the door opened up.

"Ah please come in." Ozpin said in a somewhat cheerful voice when he saw us standing in the elevator. "Team LVTN reporting." I said awkwardly while Vanir and Talia tried not to laugh at my formality. "No need to be so formal Ms. Evergreen." Ozpin said while slowly rising from his chair, I noticed that he had dark circles under his eyes.

"As I told Vanir, I have a mission for the four of you, it's one that will take you a while to accomplish, plenty of time for things to quiet down." Ozpin said to us before taking another sip from his cup. "What's the mission?" I asked, interested now at the thought of leaving the school for a short time.

"I have an associate who asked me for assistance with a mission he's having some trouble with, I recommended you four after last nights events." Ozpin said in a business like manner. "Where exactly are we going?" Vanir asked before I could respond. Ozpin set down his cup and picked up his scroll, after he tapped the screen a few times he answered the question "He's currently in a settlement between the border of Vacuo and Vale, that is where you will be heading."

"Consider it done sir." I said, once again glaring at Vanir and Talia, who were snickering at my formality. "Good, you have a limited amount of time to get your things together however, I recommend preparing now." Ozpin said before dismissing us.

"So… how are we gonna do this then?" Talia asked me while we waited for the elevator to reach the ground floor. "Simple, we just grab our gear, find the Bullhead Ozpin assigned to us and head to the border and help out Ozpins associate, shouldn't be too hard." I replied casually. "Nothing is ever simple in the borderlands." Niren said, while crossing his arms. "He's right, towns there are outside the jurisdiction of Atlas and its military, and tend to look to others for protection." Vanir added.

"Care to explain?" I asked while putting my hands on my hips. "I can fill you in on the way there, let's get our gear for now." Niren said as the door opened, he and Vanir quickly stepped outside and began to head towards the door, Talia only looked at me and shrugged, whatever information they had on the borderlands had better be worth it.

 _ **Niren Argent**_

"The borderland settlements tend to seek protection from multiple paramilitary factions and in some cases cults, the occasional Huntsman or Huntress as well." I explained to Lirril over the roar of the Bullheads engine "The two of us have been there plenty of times to make sure that settlements controlled by the Knights were still loyal to them." Vanir added, using the mask he still had to amplify his own voice.

"So there won't be any help from Atlas or other Huntsmen or Huntresses?" Lirril asked me, a worried look spreading on her face. "Correct, unless Ozpins friend has gone and bought some bodyguards to increase his chances of not dying, we will probably end up on our own." I said plainly. "Don't worry, the settlements have their own laws and do a decent job of upholding them, better than the Kingdoms do." Vanir said after lightly punching Lirrils shoulder.

"Either way, stick close to us, and if there's a sandstorm cover up, the grains are not only uncomfortable, but they can skin you alive." I concluded the lesson with that before pulling out my own mask and putting it on my head. "Got any of those for us?" Talia asked me after I took mine off, the optics were still wrecked from shrapnel.

"Vanir." I said while point at him with the screwdriver I had pulled out of my bag. "Niren threw these together as spares, figured we might need them though he fitted them for you two, they adon't have fancy electronics but should keep you safe from the sand." Vanir said as he tossed the two extra masks to Lirril and Talia. "Tell me if I need to refit them, I tried to make them fit as best I could." I said as I worked on the optics.

"They fit perfectly." Lirril and Talia said in unison, I let my calm face slip into a slight grin at the compliment. "Good." I replied as I started to focus on my task, eventually I was the only member of our team still awake, Lirril and Talia had strapped themselves in their seats and fallen asleep, Vanir on the other hand was able to sleep on the floor after drinking some alcohol, I had stopped caring about what he filled the flask with after a while, his Aura burned the stuff off fast anyway.

After a few hours of working I finally managed to get the optics working again, satisfied I set my stuff back in the bag and donned my own mask. " _Wonder how close we are._ " I thought to myself as I lay back and stared at the ceiling, the Bullhead engines still roaring. Soon my vision became blurry and I was yawning constantly " _Some sleep would be good._ " I thought before actually falling asleep.

"Niren." Vanir said while shaking me slightly "Have we arrived?" I asked, still groggy from sleep. "Yeah, get your mask on, sandstorm blew in just as we landed, it's a big one." Vanir replied while donning his, Lirril and Talia had done the same. I stood up and put on my mask, making sure the optics worked once again. "Welcome to the borderlands ladies." Vanir said as he opened the Bullhead entrance, sand and dust began to fill the cabin almost immediately.

"Damn." Talia said as we stood in the swirling sand and dust, the Bullhead took off, most likely looking to find a hangar safe from the storm. "Let's get inside, my air filter is still messed up." I said before taking a deep breath, a bit of dust already in my lungs. "Right, this way." Vanir said as the visor on his mask lit up momentarily, he began to cross a metal bridge, it took me a little while longer to realize that we were actually in a canyon, the landing pad had been built across it on a large metal bridge.

"I hate the borderlands here, sand gets everywhere." I complained after we finally found a door and got out of the storm. "Better than freezing." Vanir said, taking off his own mask and placing it in his bag. "True, let's find our client and get this thing started then." I said in agreement.

"So, any clue where this guy is?" Talia asked Lirril as we walked down the hall, it was carved into the side of the canyon wall and had several thick windows, we couldn't see out of them due to the storm but they most likely gave you a good view of the canyon and the sky. "Ozpin said he would contact us when he was ready." Lirril replied, drawing my attention back to our mission. "Guess we should find some lodging for the night then." Vanir said while looking at a map we had come up on.

"Hold on, I just got a message." Lirril said as we prepared to move on, I took a moment to look down the hall, there were a couple of people walking into several doors, I assumed that this is where the dock workers lived. "Well, the guy contacted us, he said to head to the third lowest level of the facility and go to an inn simply labeled Five." Lirril said after sliding her scroll back into her pocket. "Then let's get moving." I said, I knew the place from some past adventures in this settlement with Vanir.

After walking for what felt like an hour we finally came to stop at the inn, it was more of a bar than an inn, but for the worse off workers it probably had some rooms. "Well, let's go." Lirril said before I grabbed her arm, stopping her from entering the inn. "Did he even say what he looks like?" I asked, the thought had just occurred to me that we hadn't even been told what our client looked like. "He only said to look for a man sitting in the booth to the far left, or just look for a large weapon." Lirril said while getting me to release my grip. "Great." Vanir said while rubbing his face.

"Let's just head in then." I said, making sure the kukri at my waist was ready, _Gungnir_ was to large to swing in a small area. When we entered the inn, it was relatively quiet, most of the miners had returned to their quarters by now and the barkeep was cleaning out a mug, the bouncer only nodded when he saw us head towards the tables, our client was sitting in a booth in the far left corner, with his feet on the table and a massive blade propped up against the seat. He looked to be in his thirties or forties and was obviously drunk.

"Excuse me, we were sent by Professor Ozpin to help you." Lirril said while shaking him awake. "About time you showed up." The man said before pulling out a flask and drinking from it. "Would've helped to have some more information to go off of." Vanir said sourly while he sat down across from the man. "And I wish Ozpin had told me he was sending students instead of professionals." The man said after putting his flask away. "Let me talk to him." Vanir said while waving us away and pulling out his own flask.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

I looked at the drunk sitting in front of me after I took a drink from my own flask, it didn't have any medicine in it this time and I felt the headache I had fade away. "Aren't you a little too young to be drinking?" The man asked me while leaning forward and raising an eyebrow. "I quit giving a damn after I found out that my aura burns it off too fast." I said before taking another drink, the others did as I said and sat down at another table, and were now watching my interaction closely.

"So, Ozpin sent you here and didn't give you any information other than I asked him for some help?" The man asked me after I passed him my flask. "Yeah, he also didn't give us your name, that might make it easier for me to help." I said after he passed me my flask, it was empty now. "You tell me your and I tell you mine how about that?" He suggested while crossing his arms.

"Fine, my name is Vanir Argent, the moody one with the halberd is my brother Niren Argent and the two girls are Lirril Evergreen and Talia halcyon, now what's your name?" I replied while leaning forward.

"Names Qrow, you and your friends are gonna help me escort someone who doesn't even know she's being escorted." Qrow said while standing up and walking over to the others. "You four, put your things in the second to last room at the end of the upstairs hall, I need to have another drink." Qrow said when all four of us had gathered.

"Yes sir." Lirril said formally, the other two stood up and began to head over to the stone stairs where I was standing. "So, did you get a name?" Lirril asked me as we walked up the stairs. "Yeah, he calls himself Qrow." I replied after we reached the top of the flight. "Any clue about our mission?" Lirril asked as I opened the door to our room, it was pretty shabby looking, they at least gave us mattresses to sleep on. "Escort, and the person doesn't even know it." I replied as I sat down on a mattress, not too bad though I kept my boots on.

"Great, let's get some sleep at least then." Lirril said while sitting down and covering herself with a blanket. "Couldn't agree more." I said, also laying down and closing my eyes, letting sleep take me.

 **Finally able to work on fanfictions much more now that im done with school for the time being, expect some longer chapters as well, thank you all for reading.**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Three days later**_

"Keep an eye on her Vanir, Qrow wants to know who's been tracking her other than us." Nirens voice crackled in my ear as I kept a close eye on our charge, a girl who looked to be about my age, maybe older she had a staff in one hand and was talking with a vendor, buying apples it looked like. "Right, hold on she's moving." I replied as I waited until she was far enough ahead for me to tail her without being suspected.

"Vanir, you have some followers it seems." Lirril said over comms, "Got it, Talia keep on eye on her I can handle these guys." I said before turning down a side passage in the stone city, I took cover behind a dumpster and waited until the two people following me walked past. "You picked the wrong person to tail." I said as I drew _Gram_ from its sheath and rushed them, within seconds both men were lying dead on the ground. "Check the bodies." Niren said calmly.

"Damn." I said quietly when I saw the tags around both of their necks. "What is it, who are they?" Niren asked with a hint of worry. "It's Morgana, she's here." I said, worry starting to make my stomach knot up. "Get back to base now, Talia make sure the target gets to her inn safely and then get back to us ASAP." Niren commanded, not waiting to let Lirril give an order. "Who's Morgana?" Was all she could ask as I sheathed _Gram_ and started walking quickly to avoid any more Knights.

After Talia returned to the inn and sat down with us at our table Niren looked at Qrow, who only nodded and drank more alcohol. "You want to know who Morgana is?" He asked as I sat staring at a wall, not wanting to even join him in his explanation. "Obviously." Qrow said after setting down his flask. "She's the leader of the Knights R&D division as well as the one in charge of occult research, which means if she has an interest in our charge then there is something you and Ozpin haven't been telling us." Niren said quickly while pulling out his scroll and tapping it a few times.

"These Argent Knights, just who are they anyway?" Qrow asked us while leaning forward. "Paramilitary, at first they wanted to help the world by working with governments and the military, but something changed a few years back and their leader, a man named Uther Pendragon decided they could handle it on their own." I responded, taking a sip of water from the glass in front of me. "How do you two know them?" Qrow asked, a dangerous look in his eyes. "We used to work with them, until some of us started to get fed up with the constant slaughter going on." I responded, keeping myself calm. "How many people shared your point of view?" Qrow asked, continuing his interrogation. "Enough to divide their numbers at the time pretty evenly, of course over the next year our sides numbers would drop pretty damn fast, we stopped fighting full scale battles and switched to a more discreet way of doing things." I replied, starting to get annoyed with the whole situation. "And you have no ties to them, nothing that would tip this Morgana off to our mission?" Qrow asked, taking a different approach to his questioning. "If Morgana is here, then our charge interests her, which begs the question, why is she important enough to be guarded by a Huntsman and four students?" Niren said, getting himself involved and asking the question I didn't want to ask. "I can't tell you right now, not without Ozpin here to prove it." Qrow responded while looking down at the table, clearly annoyed at our current situation.

"No hope for it then but to get her out of here then, can we move up the airships departure?" Lirril asked, finally joining the conversation. "If she's as dangerous as you claim, then she would make her move the moment she knew you two were here right?" She continued, putting forth a simple rationalization. "If Morgana was a normal commander who was aiming to get a job done with little to no casualties and efficiently, then yes that would be her plan." Niren replied while letting out a bark. "What do you mean?" Qrow and Lirril asked at the same time. "Morgana has a habit of sacrificing her own troops in droves, and she doesn't care how long it takes to finish her mission, if anything the two of us being discovered by her has bought some time." I replied, touching one of the scars on my face, remembering who gave it to me. "Morgana likes to play with her opponents, she treats every battle like chess, and in the case of Vanir and I, she wants to capture the two of us." Niren said while cracking his fingers and sliding his scroll across the table to Qrow. "A dossier we made on her a few years back." He said simply.

"We can wait a bit longer, but we should increase our watches on the target, keeping her out of Morgana's hands is the best we can do for now, I imagine she will strike during her transport, make it look like terrorists or Grimm." I said simply after Qrow gave Niren his scroll. "Fine, we can do this your way, but I don't want there to be a full on war in the lower levels." Qrow said before drinking from his flask. "Yes sir." The two of us said in unison. After we left the inn to continue tailing the target and deal with any more knights trying to get too close to her, Niren and I had a short conversation about the current problem. "What do you think her plan is?" I asked as we entered an elevator. "No clue, she hasn't made a small move yet, beyond keeping an eye on our target, at this point she may not know about us yet." Niren replied as the elevator descended. As if we had tempted fate just by talking about Morgana both our scrolls began to ring, I looked at Niren and he slowly nodded as we both pulled out our scrolls and answered the call.

" _I'm so glad that it's you two, not any of the other Maleficar._ " Morgana's voice said with glee, my eyes widened momentarily before I replied "What do you want Morgana?" I asked, keeping my voice level, despite my fear. " _Is it that hard for you to call me mother Vanir? I only want what's best for you and Niren after all._ " Morgana answered, sounding hurt by my question. "You know damn well that I am not your child." I replied, anger starting to rise in me. I realized my mistake after the words left my mouth. " _How sad for you then, perhaps I need to find out how strong you two have become after these past few years._ " Morgana replied, venom dripping from her words. "Can we not shoot up the lower levels?" Niren asked her calmly, trying to defuse the situation. " _Anything to make you happy Niren, if you will only call me mother… just once._ " Morgana replied, her personality back to the easier to negotiate one. "Very well, can you not send people after us in the lower levels mother?" Niren said, keeping his face stony as the words left his mouth, though I could see the anger in his eyes. " _Of course! I wouldn't want you two to be hurt until later anyway, when I capture you two you can tell me all about your friends and the Maleficar_." Morgana said with glee before ending the call.

"Well, that was terrifying." I said as we stepped out of the elevator and began to walk again. "Yes, she seems to have only gotten worse." Niren responded after a while. "Seems like she's made the first move." I responded, letting a hand fall to my waist where a knife was resting in its sheath. "Yes, now the second move is ours, a bad start to the game." Niren replied, he had gone into his strategist mode and wouldn't be stopped from coming up with a plan to counter Morgana. "How about we ask the others for help? Nexus might be able to run some simulations for what Morgana might do." I suggested as we kept walking to the place that we had been using to observe the girl. "Not a bad idea, though Morgana may be able to trace our calls and listen in." Niren said, that idea was scrapped then. "Give me some time to come up with ideas, I'm no super computer but I can still run simulations well enough in my head." Niren said as we reached the room we had set up some cameras in, the room actually belonged to the maleficar, but they wouldn't have a problem with us being here. I had no doubt that Niren could create a strategy to beat Morgana, the problem was that she could come up with a counter to our strategy within seconds, and failing that would just have troops swarm us.

 _ **Qrow Branwen**_

"Oz, why didn't you let them know anything about the girl? I understand we need to keep these kinds of things secret, but those two are way too smart for their own good." I said to my scroll. After waiting a few seconds for Ozpin to take a sip from his cup I started to get annoyed, " _First he decides to send me a bunch of kids, but then it turns out two of them are former Knights, I had heard about them here and there, a shadowy group of humans and faunus who had some very lofty and ambiguous goals._ " I thought to myself in anger. " _I sent them because of the fact that two of them were members of the Argent Knights, they may be able to give you insight on the organization's goals, and if they are truly a threat to us_." Ozpin replied, interrupting my silent rant. "And what if they can't? They even said they have been at war with them for a few years now." I replied while rubbing a hand down my face. " _Then use this as a chance to learn about the two of them, despite Glynda's best efforts in counseling, neither of them have been willing to talk about that part of their lives, which means beyond what they recall of their early childhood and recent years, we know nothing about them_." Ozpin said to me calmly. "Fine, I'll see what I can get from them." I said before ending the call with a sigh.

After I put my scroll away, I heard someone enter the inn, when I looked up I saw it was the two girls, they had just come back from their own turn at watching the girl and where walking over to my table, looking pretty tired. "Hey, I've got some questions for you two." I said before they were able to take a seat. "What kind of questions?" The black haired girl asked me, showing a surprising amount of suspicion. "It's about your team mates, Have they actually told you anything about where they grew up? Ozpin wants to know since they haven't been willing to talk about a few years of their lives." I replied, taking a drink from my flask. "No, they haven't really told us much, aside from the fact that they were Knights, then they rebelled." She replied, keeping a straight face on. "You kids like to make things tough don't you?" I said with a sigh as I got ready to start asking questions in earnest.

One Hour Later

After an hour of talking to the girls I learned the habits of the other two that they had noticed, and their personalities, Vanir's was directly tied to his semblance and Niren seemed to be a double edged blade. "This has gotten me nowhere, guess I can just ask them then." I said as I noticed the other two walk into the inn, with a disturbed look on both their faces. "What happened?" I asked, quickly getting up from my seat with worry for the girl. "Morgana just made her first move." Niren said quietly.

"So now what?" I asked after they had explained their conversation. "We need to move now, find a way to get the airship to leave NOW." Niren responded, I only listened to his plan because he and Vanir knew how to fight against this Morgana better than I did. "I can handle that, you kids should try and deal with any knights that are near the girl, keep them from attacking before she can even get onboard." I said after thinking for a little bit. "Sounds like a good plan, Lirril and Talia can let Niren and I handle that part." Vanir said with a smile forming on his face, out of the four of them so far I liked him the best.

 _ **Lirril Evergreen**_

I looked down at the cards in my hand and frowned, Talia would only have better cards than me at this point. "Come on, do something." Talia said suddenly, drawing me out of my thoughts. "You already know you're going to win don't you?" I asked, already admitting defeat rather than letting my team mate rub it in. "You're no fun sometimes." Talia said as we both set our hands down, once again she had beaten me.

"At this point I would rather be getting shot at." I said with a sigh as I gave Talia the last of my money. "Yeah… Vanir's attitude about fighting might be rubbing off on you." Talia said after she said that, slowly pocketing the money. "It better not be." I said as I removed my scroll from my pocket after it started ringing. "Hello?" I said after answering the call, it was from an unknown number. " _I think it's time that I saw what you two were REALLY capable of, Vanir and Niren seem to work well with you._ " A woman said, her voice sounding completely insane. "Who is this?" I asked as my eyes narrowed and I began to reach for _Garuda_. " _You only know who I am from my children, It will be my pleasure to make you two suffer for trying to keep me from them._ " The woman said, I realized why Vanir was afraid of her now. "I wouldn't say that either of us have kept you from them, your spies just suck." I replied, knowing that I was only antagonizing the woman. As if to prove that point she laughed before saying " _How clever, I don't rely on spies, what I do rely on are soldiers who have no qualms about killing two girls just to satisfy my curiosity_." By now Talia had noticed my hand on _Garuda_ and was already reaching for _Oblivion_ "You should start saying a prayer for your men then, they won't survive." I said back, my eyes narrow and my voice cold. Morgana only laughed in response before hanging up on me and I quickly stood, splitting _Garuda_ into it's ranged form, Talia only nodded and went to stand by the door, a smile on her face the whole time.

"You might want to take cover." I said to the barkeep, who was looking at the two of us with worry. The man only nodded before running into the kitchen. "Any way the others could reach us in time?" Talia asked me as I took cover in a nice spot behind the bar. "None." I said grimly, Qrow was busy with port authorities and the airships crew, and Vanir and Niren would be handling any knights on the lower levels. "Reminds me of the year I spent with my dad, best year of raiding I ever had." Talia said with a small sigh. "Raiding?" I asked, drawn out of my grim mood by the statement my friend had just made. "Oh yeah, my dad was a bandit in Atlas, he would take me raiding with him when he could, we had to survive the wilds somehow." Talia replied with a grin on her face, remembering some good times. "Why do I feel like i'm the only one who had a normal childhood?" I asked, my own parents were part of a militia that kept a small settlement in Mistral safe from Grimm and bandit groups. "Because you are?" Talia replied a moment before someone started kicking the door from the outside. "Oh great." Talia said, raising her weapon to strike, a moment later the door fell down and a knight stepped through, only to get an axe to the gut, as he fell down the others started shooting the inn up, after the bullets stopped flying I stood up and emptied both clips into the group, trying to keep myself from getting sick at the amount of blood, as I ducked to avoid being shot at I heared Talia yell as she rushed whoever was left out in the hall, after a few seconds that felt like an eternity to reload I stood up and was greeted by Talia tugging Oblivion out of a knight's back. "Took you long enough, grab the bags, let's go find the others." She said before wiping a bit of blood of her face. "Right." I said while going over to the table to get the bags, which weren't filled with clothes, I made sure all the ammo was still there as well as the first aid kits and rations, Vanir's insistence on the matter was right this time.

"Let's go." I said after handing Talia a bag to carry. "Seems like a fine idea to me." Talia replied as we began to sprint towards the elevator "Fifth level." I said to Talia after I reached the elevator, the other girl pressed the button and the elevator began to move slowly " _Perhaps, I should have let them bring better ordnance, rifles don't seem to be enough to kill you two._ " Morgana said over the intercom, catching both of us by surprise. "Damnit where are you?!" I shouted, annoyed that she was toying with us like this. " _I am safely tucked away on a ship somewhere, but that won't matter given that there are Knights waiting at every floor for you, the moment the door opens you will die._ " Morgana said madly. "For fucks sake." Talia said angrily while burying Oblivion in the intercom. "How should we deal with this?" Talia asked me after looking at me a shrugging. "Can you use your semblance here?" I asked, hoping she could make a barrier that would hold until they ran out of ammo. "No moisture, and making the stuff from nothing is too much for me, if you want that talk to my mother." Talia replied while shaking her head sadly.

The two of us stood facing the door, weapons raised and ready to take out as many knights as possible before they killed us, when the door opened however we were greeted with an interesting sight, several knights lay unconscious and Niren and Vanir were beating the hell out of the few remaining. "Morgana and her damn games." Vanir said after letting the knight he was holding by the collar drop. "This is a surprise." I said, getting their attention "Morgana told us that at whatever floor you two went to there would be knights waiting to kill you, we figured this would be the floor you chose." Niren said, sliding a kukri into its sheath, I noticed a bit of blood on his face. "We should get moving, how long until the airship leaves?" I replied, getting back into a serious attitude and letting my joy at seeing the two of them subside. "Ten minutes, Qrow convinced them to get things moving today, and the target has been made aware of this, as well as every other passenger, once again innocent people are being thrown into a fight caused by us." Vanir said grimly as we quickly walked to the dock.

 _ **Vanir Argent**_

When we reached the dock Qrow was pacing back and forth, occasionally drinking from his flask. "What happened?" He asked us when we all stopped quickly, nearly running into each other. "Morgana sent knights after them, Niren and I were just handling a few of them when they showed up." I said quickly before moving to get on the ship, that was good enough for Qrow since he didn't ask any more questions. After we let the crew take our bag, and paid them double to not search them we went to a more private spot to plan for the attack that could happen at any moment.

"So what, is she going to make us think about when the attack will come, put us on edge?" Talia asked while scratching her head in confusion. "No, she will try and tire us out by trying to get at least one or two of us to stand watch all the time, less resistance that way." I replied, it was a favorite tactic and game of hers, always trying to see how much someone's body could handle. "So now, we simply wait for her to attack us." Niren said simply, no one could object to his words at this point, the two of us were the experts against the knights, hopefully this engagement would make them leave us be for a time. "Then there's nothing to do but wait, I can tell the captain at least, he won't be happy about the fact that we just threw his crew and passengers into a war, but then again not everyone gets to pick what happens." Qrow said, already putting his feet on a table that we had been sitting next to. "He's right, it won't do to worry about the attacks, the least we can do is keep ourselves ready and keep an eye out." Lirril said, surprisingly calm about the fact that Morgana was treating us as children to play a game with. I chuckled at the team leaders statement "What's so funny?" Lirril asked me, annoyed at my reaction to her words. "Nothing, it's just I finally have more than just a shred of respect for you." I said, then frowned at how that came out. "What?!" Lirril said loudly before punching me in the face and storming off. "Way to go." Niren said while Talia chuckled, Qrow had already gotten up and left me to my fate of being mocked by my team mates.

"So, how about we find out the specs on this junker?" I asked Niren before standing up and stretching, he only shook his head before saying "I need to think of what Morgana might do, Talia can stay and help me with it." I only shrugged and walked away, whatever he had planned for Talia might be something I should keep my nose out of, the two of them reeked of pheromones anyway. As I walked down the ship's corridors I noticed several passengers giving me the evil eye, all of them looked wealthy so I could only assume they didn't enjoy seeing a filthy half breed faunus on the ship, with a weapon no less all I could do was chuckle and think of a response to send them running "Damn blue bloods." I said under my breath before walking right into someone. "Oh sorry." I said before bending down to help her gather what was dropped, I noticed a very fine looking staff among her luggage. "It's fine, looks like neither of us were paying attention." She replied while picking things up on her hands and knees. "I'm having a rough day is all." I said, something about her was comforting and I knew that interacting with her was something I shouldn't do, given the fact that she was the person we had been brought on to protect. "So, what's your name?" She asked me after everything was packed up again and we both stood up. "Vanir Argent." I said before looking away, my face somewhat red. " My names Amber." She said while bowing slightly. "A pleasure to meet you." I said while holding out a hand for her to shake, usually I would have done something different, try and be suave most likely, though in this case I was doing something simple. "I should get going to my quarters, it was nice meeting you Mr. Argent." Amber said before continuing to walk down the hall, my ears picked up what those other passengers were saying about her, they had watched me turn down the hall then. "I hope that faunus didn't harass her, they are such filthy creatures." One of them said, I only smiled at the words they said, sure they hurt a little, but when you've been called a butcher insults like that have little to no effect. I left the maximum range my ears could reach and continued to check out the ship, it still used dilapidated cannons and thinner armor than what Morgana would throw at us. "We're fucked." I said to myself as Qrow approached me with a guard in tow.

"So… what do we have to work with?" He asked me after a short moment of silence. "This rust bucket isn't going to stand a chance against Morgana's ship, those guns won't pierce the shields on it until it's within broadside and boarding rang." I said, frowning at the fact. "So basically…. We're fucked." Qrow said, echoing my own evaluation. "We do have one advantage though." I said, pulling out my own flask and taking a drink from it. "What's that?" Qrow asked me with a raised eyebrow. "We have the person they want onboard, Morgana won't destroy the entire ship until she has her, that being said she will have to board and that means that her ship will come within range." I said, putting my flask away. "Good, get some rest then, I can work with Lirril and Niren to figure out a plan." Qrow said, I hadn't slept well in days, and it certainly was starting to show, though I could fight in this state. "Right." I said before heading towards the quarters set aside for our group. After I reached the room, I practically threw myself on the bed and went to sleep, only to be plagued by the same dream again.

 _Blood staining my blade, the silver eyed swordsman struggling to breath as every breath he took brought out more blood from his mouth, the once brilliant white armor now stained crimson, several groups of Maleficar and Knights struggled around us on the deck of the airship, I spit out a hunk of flesh in my mouth and vomited, it tasted foul. "Traitors….. All of… you." He struggled to say " Just die already." I said, watching him once again assuming the stance he fought in, his silver eyes beginning to glow. " Stop struggling for life and die!" I yelled before rushing at him with Gram out, I was more than ready to cut him in two if it would stop his relentless fighting. "TRAITOR!" He shouted before rushing me, dropping his defense, the two of us cut, a large cut opened down my torso, and his body was split in half creating a fountain of blood that soon coated every inch of my body._

I sat upright in the bed, sweating from the dream and feeling sick, as I rushed to the bathroom I noticed the others weren't here but that wasn't important right now. After I was done vomiting I washed my mouth out with some water, "Damn you Arthur, let me rest." I said after spitting out some bile. Arthur Pendragon, the son of Uther Pendragon and brother to Mordred, that one battle was the cause of a horde of problems for me, the largest being Uther's hater for me and the desire to kill me from both him and Mordred, the least of those problems was airsickness. After I left the bathroom I noticed my scroll was ringing, it was Niren. "Hello?" I said, my throat still sore from a few moments ago. "Meet us on the bridge, the captain noticed something interesting." Niren said, not acknowledging my voices pitch. "On my way." I said before hanging up and grabbing _Gram_ , I turned the lights off as I left the room and began to head towards the bridge.

 **Took me a while to get this part done, hope you enjoyed it.**


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